(Re)searching connections. Artists’ international social networks (1750-1914)
Musea Brugge organized the conference '(Re)searching connections', which provided a forum for scholarly exchange about the international social networks of artists active in the period 1750–1914. The conference was held in Rome, Italy, on 30 September and 1 October 2025.
About the conference
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Dates |
Tuesday 30 September and Wednesday 1 October 2025 |
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Location |
Academia Belgica, Via Omero 8, 00197 Rome, Italy |
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Organizers |
Musea Brugge in collaboration with Academia Belgica |
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Language |
English (mainly) and French |
The two-day international academic conference presented recent and ongoing research into the social networks of artists who lived, studied, and worked abroad in the period 1750-1914. The conference was organized in collaboration with the Academia Belgica.
Embracing a broad chronological and geographical scope, the conference brought together insights spanning the long nineteenth century and various global contexts. By fostering interdisciplinary dialogue across art history, sociology, and digital humanities, and by connecting diverse methodologies and findings across specializations, we aimed to deepen our understanding of the transnational social connections that “make” art history.
Program
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Tuesday 30 September 2025
10:00-10:15: Welcome & introduction – Cécile Evers (Academia Belgica) & Anne van Oosterwijk (Musea Brugge)
10:15-11:15: Keynote lecture – France Nerlich (Musée d’Orsay): Between legacy and the living: Artistic dialogues in a transnational Europe
11:15-12:45: Session I: Navigating national identities – chair: Christine Dupont (House of European History)
- Thijs Dekeukeleire (Musea Brugge): The writing’s on the wall: Mentorship, mobility and the Bruges-Rome artistic network c. 1800
- Cécilia Hurley-Griener (École du Louvre): Réseaux superposés: Espaces et sociabilités dans la Rome du XIXe siècle
- Julia A. Sienkewicz (Roanoke College): Networking and the making of a transnational sculptor: The social sites of Luigi Persico
14:15-15:45: Session II: Networks’ sources – chair: Veerle Thielemans (INHA-Institut national d’histoire de l’art)
- Virginie D’haene (Museum Plantin-Moretus): Achieving ideals: The social network behind Andries Lens’s neoclassicism
- Lucie Montassier (Université de Poitiers): Reconstituer les réseaux des artistes femmes: Les approches cartographiques
- Ieva Kalnača & Aija Zandersone (Latvian National Museum of Art): Mapping a network: Documenting Latvian and Spanish artistic connections in Paris (1900–1914)
16:15-17:15: Session III: The studio as a social hub – chair: Laura Overpelt (KNIR-Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome)
- Oriane Poret (Université Lyon 2/LARHRA): Beasts on loan: Global networks and the economy of nineteenth-century animal art
- Marlen Schneider (Université Grenoble Alpes/LARHRA): In the light of Batoni’s studio: Artistic networks and the circulation of drawing practices between Rome and German art academies
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Wednesday 1 October 2025
10:00-10:15: Introduction – Anne van Oosterwijk (Musea Brugge)
10:15-11:15: Keynote lecture – Giovanna Ceserani (Stanford University): “Here in the proper center for gentlemen of [t]his profession”: Artists in eighteenth-century Rome
11:15-12:45: Session IV: From data to networks – chair: Eva Geudeker (RKD-Netherlands Institute for Art History)
- Mayken Jonkman (Rijksmuseum Amsterdam): Paris intimates: The role of connections for Dutch artists’ success in the French capital 1774–1914
- Fien Messens (Ghent University and KBR-Royal Library of Belgium): Networking over a bowl of onion soup: A data-driven perspective on the artist François-Joseph Navez in Rome
- Carla Mazzarelli (Università della Svizzera italiana), Gaetano Cascino (Università della Svizzera italiana and Università Roma Tre) & Luca Piccoli (Università della Svizzera italiana and Sapienza Università di Roma): For a map of artistic sociability inside the Museo di Roma: Nineteenth-century visiting experiences and networks
14:15-15:15: Session V: Academies as anchor – chair: Anne van Oosterwijk (Musea Brugge)
- Gabriel Marques (Universidade NOVA de Lisboa – FCSH): National academies and artistic communities in Rome: The Portuguese pensioners of the 1820s–1830s
- Dominiek Dendooven (Merghelynck Museum and Yper Museum): A transnational network to ‘revive Flemish art’: Bruges and Rouen in the eighteenth century
15:45-16:45: Session VI: Collaboration across borders – chair: Evelien De Wilde (Musea Brugge)
- Nina Reid (Radboud University): The power of the print: International etching societies during the fin-de-siècle
- Iliana Mejias-Ojajärvi (University of Helsinki): Russian artists’ exhibition activities in Helsinki, 1890–1911: Organization, artistic exchange, and transnational connections
16:45-17:45: Closing keynote lecture – Giovanna Capitelli (Università Roma Tre): Transnational sources for studying the cosmopolitan art world of early nineteenth-century Rome
18:00-20:00: Reception
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Download full program
Conference organization
'(Re)searching connections' is part of the research project Apprentice-Master II, conducted by Musea Brugge with the support of the Flemish Government. From 2024 to 2026, we are researching the international trajectories of alumni from the Bruges Academy of Fine Arts during the long 19th century, further contributing to Musea Brugge’s focus on this period as a central collection pillar. The newly established BRON research centre embodies Musea Brugge’s commitment to innovative scholarship.
The scientific committee of the conference consists of: Thijs Dekeukeleire (Musea Brugge), Evelien De Wilde (Musea Brugge), Christine Dupont (House of European History), Eva Geudeker (RKD-Netherlands Institute for Art History), Fien Messens (Ghent University and KBR-Royal Library of Belgium), France Nerlich (Musée d’Orsay), Laura Overpelt (KNIR-Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome and Utrecht University), Asker Pelgrom (Nationaal Centrum voor de Nederlandse Buitenplaatscultuur), Veerle Thielemans (Institut national d’histoire de l’art), Laurence Van Kerkhoven (Musea Brugge), Anne Van Oosterwijk (Musea Brugge)
