The Orléans Collection: Tastemaking, Networks and Legacy
New Orleans Museum of Art, January 11-13, 2019
Proposals: September 30, 2018
The New Orleans Museum of Art and the Frick Center for the History of Collecting will host a
symposium in conjunction with 'The Orléans Collection' exhibition dedicated to the collecting
and collection of Philippe II duc d'Orléans (1674–1723) on view at the New Orleans Museum of
Art October 26, 2018 through January 27, 2019
Collecting over just over two decades, Philippe II d'Orléans amassed one of the most important
collections of European paintings in the history of art, which he displayed in his Palais-Royal in
Paris. This celebrated collection assembled over 500 masterpieces of European Art and this
landmark exhibition reunites a representative group of forty works to tell the complex story of
the collection's formation and character and the impact of the sales of the collection in London
during the French revolution, a watershed event in the history of collecting.
The Orléans Collectionexhibition catalogue essays offer an overview of the collection, Philippe's
relationship with his court painter Antoine Coypel, the refurbishment of the Palais-Royal during
the regency, his collecting of Venetian, Dutch and Flemish and Bolognese Art, contemporary
artists studying the collection, and a review of the circumstances of the collection's dispersal.
The catalogue's extensive Appendix transcribes the earliest 1727 publication of the collection
tracing picture to their current locations.
The symposium seeks to expand beyond the scope of the catalogue and consider a
wider range of relationships concerning Philippe d'Orléans's taste and the impact the collection
had for generations of collectors and artists, and an increasingly wider public throughout the
eighteenth century. Subjects of interest might include: Philippe II's patronage network; fellow
collectors and trends in collecting in Paris; dealers and the art market in eighteenth century
Paris; connections with contemporary collections in the German principalities; the 'Orléans
Effect' in Great Britain and later entrance in public collections.
Travel can be provided to a limited number of applicants.
To propose a paper, please submit a message of interest and 300 word abstract by September 30, 2018to: nomasymposium@noma.org