Book Project "Art, Auctions, and Public Spectacle in Nineteenth-Century Paris"

FAIN: FT-56708-09

Darius A. Spieth
Louisiana State University and A&M College (Baton Rouge, LA 70803-0001)

This application requests funding through the NEH Summer Stipend Program 2009 in order to conduct research for a planned book entitled "Art, Auctions, and Public Spectacle in Nineteenth-Century Paris." Research will focus on historic Parisian auction house catalogs and corresponding pricing information, which will be used to extrapolate statistical information documenting major trends and developments in the European art market over the course of the century. These materials can only be consulted in specialized collections and archives located in Paris, London, and The Hague, thus requiring travel funds and an extended period of study in situ in order to bring the project to fruition. The proposed time frame for undertaking this research is the months of June and July 2009.

Associated Products

Art, Auctions, and Public Spectacle in Nineteenth-Century Paris (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Art, Auctions, and Public Spectacle in Nineteenth-Century Paris
Author: Darius A. Spieth
Abstract: Abstract Art, Auctions, and Public Spectacle in Nineteenth-Century Paris by Darius A. Spieth In nineteenth-century Paris, auctions emerged as a space for the public negotiation of both the value and the meaning of art, akin in their social dynamics to the official Salon. Although close to 20,000 art auction catalogs were published over the course of the century, few attempts have been made to systematically explore this treasure trove of facts and data, which is apt to reveal the inner workings of the “art market capital of nineteenth century.” Part of a book-length study on art auctions in Paris during this time period, the paper will investigate in particular the fluctuations of art market volume from the Revolutionary period through the Third Republic, and contextualize this information with French macroeconomic data. The talk will describe the research methodology used to compile this information, and then correlate art market turnover with French GDP. The findings will be interpreted in light of both the political upheavals and financial crises that afflicted the era. I will argue for the recognition of art auctions as key sites of Parisian modernity, because it was here that marketing strategies and protocols for valuing art, both economically and aesthetically, became entrenched that continue to define the rules for appreciating art today.
Date: 04/29/2011
Primary URL: https://sites.google.com/site/artmarketsworkshop/program
Primary URL Description: Art Markets Workshop, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 2011. Program Description
Secondary URL: https://39ebe366-a-62cb3a1a-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/artmarketsworkshop/program/Spieth2.pdf?attachauth=ANoY7cprr_4xP9KE79fCMpUhBeHs0M9xwgCK4gKHcgBpGCnuIqUZ5Zw81bGMYomWOO8_rW420w3muBS7Dvkvc85qsAwItxNzi1XqNG8JunBZn3oI0HuADAe0R16AkQFjlZ9OxerW73QEdyAdCGN
Secondary URL Description: Abstract of Presentation (see above)
Conference Name: Art Markets Workshop, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, 2011.

Netherlandish Golden Age Art in Revolutionary Paris (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Netherlandish Golden Age Art in Revolutionary Paris
Author: Darius A. Spieth
Abstract: Netherlandish Golden Age Art in Revolutionary Paris This talk describes the structures of the Parisian art market before, during, and after Robespierre’s rule, using examples of prices realized for Netherlandish art at auction. Although the French art market went through a brutal period of contraction during the 1790s, exacerbated by a period of hyperinflation by the middle of the decade, art continued to be bought and sold. After adjustments for inflation, Netherlandish pictures, widely regarded as the least risky art investment at the turn of the nineteenth century, lost on average slightly more than half of their value in the decade after 1789. It was only in the 1830s that the value of Netherlandish art again attained the same level as during the ancien régime. Demand for art during the Revolutionary years came mostly from British dealers and the expanding French bourgeoisie, both of whom were bargain hunters.
Date: 03/28/2014
Primary URL: http://som.yale.edu/event/2014/03/art-mind-and-markets-conference
Primary URL Description: “Art, Mind and Markets” conference, Yale International Center for Finance, New Haven, CT, March 28 – 29, 2014, Program
Secondary URL: http://design.lsu.edu/art-history-professor-darius-spieth-co-organizes-art-mind-and-markets-conference-at-yale/
Secondary URL Description: Coverage on the home page of the LSU College of Art+Design of the same conference
Conference Name: “Art, Mind and Markets” conference, Yale International Center for Finance, New Haven, CT, March 28 – 29, 2014.

Art History Professor Darius A. Spieth To Publish Two Books on Art Markets (Blog Post)
Title: Art History Professor Darius A. Spieth To Publish Two Books on Art Markets
Author: Angela T. Harwood
Abstract: Announcement of book contract for "Revolutionary Paris and the Market for Netherlandish Art" signed with Brill, research for which was partly funded through NEH grant.
Date: 07/07/2016
Primary URL: http://design.lsu.edu/art-history-professor-darius-spieth-publish-books-brill-oxford-university-press/
Blog Title: Faculty News, LSU College of Art+Design
Website: Faculty News, LSU College of Art+Design

Netherlandish Art in Revolutionary France: The Evolution of Taste, the Art Market, and Prices (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Netherlandish Art in Revolutionary France: The Evolution of Taste, the Art Market, and Prices
Abstract: On May 27, 2014, Darius A. Spieth, associate professor of art history at the LSU School of Art, presented his current research at the Fondation Custodia in Paris. His talk, “Netherlandish Art in Revolutionary France: The Evolution of Taste, the Art Market, and Prices” (L’art néerlandais sous la Révolution française: Évolution du goût, du marché de l’art et des prix) was delivered in French before an audience comprised of art historians, museum curators, and the general public. The first part of the lecture retraced how historical events and the behavior of collectors, both royal and private, shaped the 18th-century French passion for Dutch and Flemish pictures of the “Golden Age”—the age of Rembrandt, Rubens, and Vermeer. The second part presented new approaches for how to quantitatively measure the impact of the price shock of the French Revolution on the value of Netherlandish art in the Parisian market place. The lecture concluded with a comparative analysis of the French market for Netherlandish “Golden Age” paintings and prints between roughly 1770 and 1830.
Author: Darius A. Spieth
Date: 05/27/2014
Location: Fondation Custodia, Paris, France
Primary URL: http://design.lsu.edu/art-history-professor-darius-spieth-presents-research-in-paris/
Primary URL Description: Announcement and documentation on the presentation held at the Fondation Custodia in Paris, France. Faculty news, LSU College of Art+Design

Revolutionary Paris and the Market for Netherlandish Art (Book)
Title: Revolutionary Paris and the Market for Netherlandish Art
Author: Darius A. Spieth
Abstract: Seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish paintings were aesthetic, intellectual, and economic touchstones in the Parisian art world of the Revolutionary era, but their importance within this framework, while frequently acknowledged, never attracted much subsequent attention. Darius A. Spieth’s inquiry into Revolutionary Paris and the Market for Netherlandish Art reveals the dominance of “Golden Age” pictures in the artistic discourse and sales transactions before, during, and after the French Revolution. A broadly based statistical investigation, undertaken as part of this study, shows that the upheaval reduced prices for Netherlandish paintings by about 55% compared to the Old Regime, and that it took until after the July Revolution of 1830 for art prices to return where they stood before 1789.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: http://www.brill.com/products/book/revolutionary-paris-and-market-netherlandish-art
Primary URL Description: Publisher's web site.
Secondary URL: http://newfirstsearch.oclc.org/WebZ/FSFETCH?fetchtype=fullrecord:sessionid=fsapp4-55609-j8j18zzj-p3l1pi:entitypagenum=15:0:recno=20:resultset=1:format=FI:next=html/record.html:bad=error/badfetch.html:entitytoprecno=20:entitycurrecno=20:numrecs=1
Secondary URL Description: WorldCat.
Access Model: Book and E-Book (by subscription)
Publisher: Brill
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9789004336988
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

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