Professor Katie Scott

Professor in the History of Art

Katie Scott studied History of Art at University College London, from which she gained both a BA and a PhD. She has taught at The 91制片厂 Institute of Art since 1988.

A specialist in French art and architecture of the early modern period, Katie鈥檚 research interests focus on the relationship between works of art and their physical and social context. The domestic interior, decoration, ornament and increasingly the decorative arts have been the objects of critical essays in exhibition catalogues, journals, edited collections and her book The Rococo Interior (Yale University Press, 1996).

More recently she has been preparing a book length study on the origin of copyright and patent in the arts in early modern France. Her interests have thus turned to questions of mechanical reproduction and the culture of the copy. Specifically, she has written about Chardin鈥檚 copies, repetitions and the reproductions of his genre paintings; she has also explored the ways in which Fran莽ois Boucher鈥檚 artistic persona was collectively produced by the reproduction of his work in print.

In the context of decorative arts and material culture, Katie and Hannah Williams were contributing members of the Material Life of Things project at The 91制片厂 Institute of Art聽Research Forum organised and chaired by Francesco Lucchini in 2010. They are well underway on a dictionary entitled Lost Property: Eighteenth-century artists鈥 things recovered which approaches the manifestation, representation and commemoration of artistic identity via an analysis of things.

Katie is also a member of an interdisciplinary research group that unites scholars in the history and philosophy of science and the history of art from UCLA, McGill and The 91制片厂; their research topic is Models and Modelling in art and science. A publication will be forthcoming. She is on the editorial boards of Perspective: La revue de l鈥橧NHA and Early Modern French Studies.


PhD Supervision

Current

  • , 鈥楧ecorative Plasterwork in England: Form, Materiality and Making, 1660-1700鈥
  • , 鈥楲andscape Artists in Paris 1680-1750鈥

Recently completed

  • , 鈥業tinerant Pastellists: Circuits of Movement in Eighteenth-Century Europe鈥橶olf Burchard, 鈥楾he Sovereign Artist: Charles Le Brun and the Art of Absolutism (1665-1675)鈥
  • John Chu, 鈥楾he Fortunes of Fancy Painting in Eighteenth-Century England鈥 (with聽)
  • Hannah Williams, 鈥楶ortraits of Artists: A Historical Ethnography of the Acad茅mie Royale (1648-1793)鈥 (2010)
  • Juliet Carey, 鈥楾he Value of Vases: The Cultural Contexts of S猫vres Vases, 1740-1783鈥 (2011)
  • Edouard Kopp, 鈥楨dme Bouchardon: Learned Draughtsman of the Eighteenth Century鈥 (2013)

Research interests

  • Architecture and the decorative arts in early modern France with particular interest in art theory
  • the relations of art, commerce and the law and reception of the Far East
  • The history and theory of decoration and the ornamental
  • the history and theory of intellectual property
  • art, material culture and theories of the everyday

Recent publications

Books

  • Rococo Echo: Art, history and historiography from Cochin to Coppola, ed with Melissa Hyde (Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment, 2014)

Essays, articles and reviews

  • 鈥楶ersuasion: Nicolas Pineau鈥檚 Designs on the Social鈥,聽RIHA Journal, 84 (2014)
  • 鈥楨dme Bouchardon鈥檚 鈥淐ris de Paris鈥: Crying food in early modern Paris鈥,聽Word and Image, 29/1 (2013) 59-91
  • 鈥楽creen Wise, Screen Play: Jacques de Lajoue and the Ruses of Rococo鈥,聽Art History, 36/3 (2013) 568-607
  • 鈥楥hardin and the Art of Building Castles鈥, in聽Taking Time: Chardin鈥檚 Boy Building a House of Cards and other Paintings by Juliet Carey聽(2013) 36-52
  • 鈥楽aint Aubin鈥檚 Jokes and Their Relation To鈥︹, in The Saint Aubin 鈥楲ivre De Caricatures鈥:聽Drawing Satire in Eighteenth-Century Paris聽eds Colin Jones and Juliet Carey (SVEC,聽2012) 349-403

Citations