Art and Architecture in the French Atlantic World, 1608-1828

FAIN: FA-58144-15

Gauvin Alexander Bailey
Queen's University (Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6 Canada)

Although the arts and architecture of Latin America today comprise one of the most flourishing subjects in the discipline the same cannot be said for those of the French Atlantic Empire, which astonishingly--except for regional scholarship on Quebec and Louisiana--does not exist as a field. The proposed book project aims to do two things for the first time: (1) to amalgamate all regions of the French Atlantic Empire into a single study; and (2) to contextualize the arts of French America with Latin America, examining how differing ideologies led to contrasting architectural and visual cultures despite shared histories of conquest, conversion, and forced labor. The study will encompass North America, the Antilles, Guyana, and Senegal, and will consider topics such as the French Royal engineers, missionaries, and the art workshops of the Ursuline nuns. This study will interest not only art historians, but also anthropologists, and historians of religion, among other humanities fields.

Associated Products

Architecture and Urbanism in the French Atlantic Empire: State, Church, and Society, 1604-1830 (Book)
Title: Architecture and Urbanism in the French Atlantic Empire: State, Church, and Society, 1604-1830
Author: Gauvin Alexander Bailey
Abstract: Spanning from the West African coast to the Canadian prairies and south to Louisiana, the Caribbean, and Guiana, France’s Atlantic empire was one of the largest political entities in the Western Hemisphere. Yet despite France's status as a nation at the forefront of architecture and the structures and designs from this period that still remain, its colonial building program has never been considered on a hemispheric scale. Drawing from hundreds of plans, drawings, photographic field surveys, and extensive archival sources, Architecture and Urbanism in the French Atlantic Empire focuses on the French state’s and the Catholic Church’s ideals and motivations for their urban and architectural projects in the Americas. In vibrant detail, Gauvin Alexander Bailey recreates a world that has been largely destroyed by wars, natural disasters, and fires - from Cap-François (now Cap-Haïtien), which once boasted palaces in the styles of Louis XV and formal gardens patterned after Versailles, to failed utopian cities like Kourou in Guiana. Vividly illustrated with examples of grand buildings, churches, and gardens, as well as simple houses and cottages, this volume also brings to life the architects who built these structures, not only French military engineers and white civilian builders, but also the free people of colour and slaves who contributed so much to the tropical colonies. Taking readers on a historical tour through the striking landmarks of the French colonial landscape, Architecture and Urbanism in the French Atlantic Empire presents a sweeping panorama of an entire hemisphere of architecture and its legacy.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: http://www.mqup.ca/architecture-and-urbanism-in-the-french-atlantic-empire-products-9780773553149.php
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780773553149
Copy sent to NEH?: No

Prizes

Publication Grant
Date: 1/9/2017
Organization: Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences
Abstract: Grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences through the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program

Der Palast von Sans-Souci in Milot, Haiti (ca. 1806–1813): Das vergessene Potsdam im Regenwald/The Palace of Sans-Souci in Milot, Haiti (ca. 1806–13): The Untold Story of the Potsdam of the Rainforest. (Book)
Title: Der Palast von Sans-Souci in Milot, Haiti (ca. 1806–1813): Das vergessene Potsdam im Regenwald/The Palace of Sans-Souci in Milot, Haiti (ca. 1806–13): The Untold Story of the Potsdam of the Rainforest.
Author: Gauvin Alexander Bailey
Abstract: One of the most dramatic and least-studied neoclassical buildings in the Western Hemisphere, King Henry I Christophe’s opulent French-style palace in Haiti towers over the agricultural town of Milot. Begun less than a decade after Haitian independence (1804) by America’s first black king this massive structure was built to demonstrate Haiti’s capacity to stand up to a world in which most global powers were still monarchies or empires. Although a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a major tourist attraction in the 1940s-50s during the heyday of Haitian tourism, this extraordinary building has never been the subject of concentrated scholarly study and is therefore the source of much mythmaking and speculation. It has been attributed to imprisoned French workers, Prussian volunteer soldiers, renegade Napoleonic generals, and re-enslaved Africans—among others. Using unpublished archival sources and a photographic survey undertaken in 2017 this book reconstructs the circumstances, influences, and builders of this extraordinary monument to demonstrate its position at the nexus of a global network of cultures at the dawn of Caribbean and Latin American independence, from France, Prussia, Spain, Great Britain and the Kingdom of Dahomey and including figures as varied as Duke Leopold of Lorrain, Toussaint Louverture, Napoleon Bonaparte, George III, and Frederick the Great.
Year: 2017
Primary URL: https://www.deutscherkunstverlag.de/buch/neuerscheinungen/buchdetail/anzeige/der-palast-von-sans-souci-in-milot-haiti-the-palace-of-sans-souci-in-milot-haiti.html
Publisher: Deutscher Kunstverlag, Berlin and Munich
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9783422074668
Translator: Julian Hermann
Copy sent to NEH?: No

The Palace of Sans-Souci in Milot, Haiti (1811-13): the Untold Story of the Potsdam of the Rainforest. (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: The Palace of Sans-Souci in Milot, Haiti (1811-13): the Untold Story of the Potsdam of the Rainforest.
Abstract: One of the most mysterious buildings in the Western hemisphere, King Henri Christophe’s lavish neoclassical palace in the rain forest, enthrones the small Haitian town of Milot. Begun less than a decade after the Haitian Revolution for independence (1804) by the first black African king in the Americas, this massive monument was built to showcase Haiti’s power and self-confidence. Despite its status as UNESCO World Heritage and a tourist attraction, the unusual building has never before been the subject of a study. On the basis of unpublished archival sources and exact photographic documentation, this book is the first to publish detailed information about the genesis this extraordinary architecture and the story of its builder.
Author: Gauvin Alexander Bailey
Date: 6/20/2017
Location: Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich
Primary URL: http://www.zikg.eu/veranstaltungen/2017/panofsky-lecture-gauvin-alexander-bailey

Colonial Architecture Project (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)
Title: Colonial Architecture Project
Author: Gauvin Alexander Bailey
Abstract: This interactive tool features almost 5,000 photographs of rare and often endangered colonial buildings on five continents, maps, keyword searches, timelines, and a glossary. This is the only website of its kind and promotes understanding of the commonalities of colonial architecture across the continents and also raises important issues about heritage conservation since over 35 of the sites are UNESCO world heritage sites and many are endangered or already ruined.
Year: 2016
Primary URL: http://www.colonialarchitectureproject.org/
Access Model: Open Access

Architecture and Urbanism in the French Atlantic World, 1604-1830: Ideology and Reality in the Other Latin America (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Architecture and Urbanism in the French Atlantic World, 1604-1830: Ideology and Reality in the Other Latin America
Author: Gauvin Alexander Bailey
Abstract: Although the architecture of Spanish and Portuguese America today comprises one of the most flourishing subjects in the art-historical discipline the same cannot be said for that of the French Atlantic Empire, which astonishingly--except for regional scholarship on Quebec and a handful of buildings in Louisiana--does not exist as a field. This talk will provide a brief overview of the architectural heritage of the French Atlantic Empire (including the rich collection of plans and drawings in the archives in Aix-en-Provence and elsewhere) and will contextualize French America within the history of Latin American architecture, examining how differing ideologies and utopianisms among the French and Iberian empires led to strikingly contrasting architectural cultures despite shared histories of conquest, settlement, conversion, and forced labour. This paper will encompass North America, the French Antilles, French Guyana, and also Senegal.
Date: 11/22/2015
Primary URL: http://hrc.cass.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/hrc/u78/Global%20French%20Program%20.pdf
Conference Name: Global France, Global French

Architecture and Urbanism in the French Atlantic World, 1604-1830: Ideology and Reality in the Other Latin America (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Architecture and Urbanism in the French Atlantic World, 1604-1830: Ideology and Reality in the Other Latin America
Author: Gauvin Alexander Bailey
Abstract: Although the architecture of Spanish and Portuguese America today comprises one of the most flourishing subjects in the art-historical discipline the same cannot be said for that of the French Atlantic Empire, which astonishingly--except for regional scholarship on Quebec and a handful of buildings in Louisiana--does not exist as a field. This talk will provide a brief overview of the architectural heritage of the French Atlantic Empire (including the rich collection of plans and drawings in the archives in Aix-en-Provence and elsewhere) and will contextualize French America within the history of Latin American architecture, examining how differing ideologies and utopianisms among the French and Iberian empires led to strikingly contrasting architectural cultures despite shared histories of conquest, settlement, conversion, and forced labour. This paper will encompass North America, the French Antilles, French Guyana, and also Senegal.
Date: 1/29/2016
Primary URL: http://arts.ucdavis.edu/lecture/convergent-cultures-convergent-image
Conference Name: Alan Templeton Colloquium in Art History

Architecture dans le monde atlantique français (1604-1830) : Idéologie et réalité en France, en Afrique de l'Ouest, et dans l'autre Amérique latine (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Architecture dans le monde atlantique français (1604-1830) : Idéologie et réalité en France, en Afrique de l'Ouest, et dans l'autre Amérique latine
Abstract: Bien que l’architecture de l'Amérique espagnole et portugaise figure aujourd’hui au nombre des sujets les plus en vogue en histoire de l’art, l’on ne peut en dire autant à propos de celle qui a connu son essor au sein de l’empire atlantique français ; en effet, mis à part un certain nombre d’études régionales portant sur le Québec et une poignée de travaux consacrés aux édifices bâtis en Louisiane, force est de constater, non sans étonnement, qu’elle ne constitue toujours pas un domaine d’étude académique à part entière.
Author: Gauvin Alexander Bailey
Date: 8/10/2016
Location: Institut de France, Paris

Architecture in the French Atlantic World, 1608-1828: Utopianism and Intransigence in a Paper Empire. (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Architecture in the French Atlantic World, 1608-1828: Utopianism and Intransigence in a Paper Empire.
Abstract: Although the architecture of Spanish and Portuguese America today comprises one of the most flourishing subjects in the art-historical discipline the same cannot be said for that of the French Atlantic Empire, which astonishingly—except for regional scholarship on Quebec and a handful of studies of buildings in Louisiana—does not exist as a field. This talk will provide a brief overview of the architectural heritage of the French Atlantic Empire (including the rich collection of plans and drawings in the archives in Aix-en-Provence and elsewhere) and will contextualize French America within the history of Latin American architecture, examining how differing ideologies and utopianisms among the French and Iberian empires led to strikingly contrasting architectural cultures despite shared histories of conquest, settlement, conversion, and forced labour. This paper will encompass North America, the French Antilles, French Guyana, and also Senegal.
Author: Gauvin Alexander Bailey
Date: 12/14/2016
Location: Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte
Primary URL: http://www.zikg.eu/veranstaltungen/2016/vortrag-gauvin-alexander-bailey

El palacio de Sans-Souci en Milot, Haití (1811-13): la historia no contada del Potsdam de la selva (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: El palacio de Sans-Souci en Milot, Haití (1811-13): la historia no contada del Potsdam de la selva
Author: Gauvin Alexander Bailey
Abstract: El opulento Palacio Barroco de Sans-Souci, construido por el rey Enrique Christophe de Haití, es uno de los edificios más espectaculares pero menos estudiados de su época en el Hemisferio Occidental. Sus imponentes ruinas de ladrillo y piedra, gravemente dañadas por un terremoto de 1842, todavía dominan la modesta ciudad agrícola de Milot (a 45 minutos en coche de Cap-Haïtien), alguna vez, una plantación colonial. El palacio también se sitúa al pie del pico de Laferrière, de 969 metros de altura, coronado por la majestuosa Citadelle Laferrière, un castillo en las nubes invisible desde Milot pero construido durante la misma campaña y probablemente por muchas de las mismas personas. Iniciado el mismo año de la independencia haitiana (1804) por un hombre que se convertiría en el primer rey negro de América, la Ciudadela, como Sans-Souci, fue construida para demostrar la capacidad de Haití para enfrentar un mundo hostil en el que la mayoría de las naciones eran monarquías o imperios. El Palacio de Sans-Souci, que es una de las principales atracciones de la época turística de Haití en los años 40-50 y declarado Patrimonio de la Humanidad por la UNESCO desde 1982, nunca ha sido objeto de un estudio académico concentrado y ha generado una fértil red de mitos y especulaciones que se remontan a principios del siglo XIX.
Date: 8/10/2017
Primary URL: http://payro.institutos.filo.uba.ar/evento/xii-jornadas-estudios-e-investigaciones-el-arte-y-la-multiculturalidad
Conference Name: XII Jornadas Estudios e Investigaciones "El Arte y la multiculturalidad"

The Palace of Sans-Souci in Milot Haiti (ca. 1806-1813): The Untold Story of the Potsdam of the Rainforrest (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: The Palace of Sans-Souci in Milot Haiti (ca. 1806-1813): The Untold Story of the Potsdam of the Rainforrest
Author: Gauvin Alexander Bailey
Abstract: One of the most mysterious buildings in the Western hemisphere, King Henri Christophe’s lavish neoclassical palace in the rain forest, enthrones the small Haitian town of Milot. Begun less than a decade after the Haitian Revolution for independence (1804) by the first black African king in the Americas, this massive monument was built to showcase Haiti’s power and self-confidence.
Date: 10/19/2017
Primary URL: https://news.uniroma1.it/sites/default/files/_apm_files/European%20Baroque%20Program.pdf
Conference Name: European Baroque in a Global Perspective, University of Rome, La Sapienza

The Palace of Sans-Souci in Milot, Haiti (ca. 1806-1813): The Untold Story of the Potsdam of the Rainforest (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: The Palace of Sans-Souci in Milot, Haiti (ca. 1806-1813): The Untold Story of the Potsdam of the Rainforest
Abstract: One of the most mysterious buildings in the Western hemisphere, King Henri Christophe’s lavish neoclassical palace in the rain forest, enthrones the small Haitian town of Milot. Begun less than a decade after the Haitian Revolution for independence (1804) by the first black African king in the Americas, this massive monument was built to showcase Haiti’s power and self-confidence.
Author: Gauvin Alexander Bailey
Date: 3/13/2018
Location: Middlebury College
Primary URL: http://www.middlebury.edu/arts/news/2017-2018/mar18

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