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Eighteenth-century Paris is celebrated for its artistic brilliance, from the rococo elegance of Antoine Watteau to the neoclassical refinement of Elisabeth Vigée-Le Brun, and the sumptuous materiality of the decorative arts. Yet this artistic culture was also shaped by France’s colonial empire, whose wealth, generated in large part by Caribbean plantation economies, helped sustain the world of art and luxury in Paris.

Drawing on new research into the connections between the Paris art world and France’s Caribbean colonies, this talk explores how colonial trade, wealth, and power intersected with the making, circulation, and collecting of art. Focusing particularly on the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), it uncovers the often over-looked histories behind the period’s celebrated objects and considers how the upheavals of the French and Haitian Revolutions ended up bringing some of those works to London. In doing so, this talk offers a fresh perspective on the global histories and colonial entanglements embedded within the Wallace Collection’s renowned holdings of European art.

About the speaker: Dr Hannah Williams is Reader in the History of Art at Queen Mary University of London and a specialist in the art and material culture of eighteenth-century France. Her research explores social histories of the Paris art world, bringing together the study of artworks, artists’ lives, and the wider networks in which art was produced and consumed. She is the author of Académie Royale: A History in Portraits (2015), and co-author, with Katie Scott, of Artists’ Things: Recovering Lost Property from Eighteenth-Century France (2024). She is also co-director, with Meredith Martin, of Colonial Networks, a research project investigating the connections between the Part art world and France’s Caribbean colonies. 

Take part at the museum: No ticket required, drop in on the day. Join us in the Theatre for this special talk.  

Watch online: This talk will also be broadcast live from the museum via Zoom. Book a free ticket online to receive a Zoom link. Ticketholders will also receive a link to view a recording of the talk, which will be available for two weeks only.