HESCAH Talk

Speaker: Stephanie O’Rourke, Senior Lecturer in Art History, University of St. Andrew, Scotland

This talk explores how the French landscape tradition was shaped by a new science of forest management in territorial France and colonial Algeria. Artworks and technical diagrams alike gave pictorial form to means of exploiting various kind of “value” in forests, both in the metropole and in its colonial territories—even artworks we assume to be “ecological” in their orientation. Among other things, we can consider the extent to which trees were understood to be a fundamental instrument that French administrators wielded to control the climate of both territorial France and its colonies.

Made possible by the Harn Eminent Scholar Chair in Art History (HESCAH) program. The Harn Eminent Scholar Chair in Art History (HESCAH) program brings to the University of Florida distinguished scholars whose work represents a range of fields in the history of art. Established by a gift from Dr. David A. and Mary Ann Cofrin, this endowment funds visiting scholars, lecture series and symposia featuring leading art historians, critics, curators and museum professionals.