6 p.m. – reception
6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. – lecture

This lecture explores how interactions between people and their possessions contributed to the definition of elite identities within elegantly decorated 18th-century residences. Just as clothing shaped the figure, furniture facilitated self-presentation and interaction in accordance with particular aesthetic and social values. Re-imagining this dynamic interplay between bodies and objects reveals both the pleasures and the challenges of 18th-century life.

Mimi Hellman teaches and writes about visual and material culture in Europe between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. She is currently writing a book on the design and social history of the hôtel de Soubise, an aristocratic residence in eighteenth-century Paris. She is Department Chair and Associate Professor of Art History at Skidmore College.

Registration is required.