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Julie Codell, Arizona State University

From the mid-19th century, a new kind of narrative about private collectors appeared in Europe and the US, e.g., Anna Jameson's Companion to the Most Celebrated Private Galleries (1844), Gustav Waagen's Kunstwerke und Künstler in England und Paris (Berlin, 1837-1839), trans. Elizabeth Eastlake as The Treasures of Art in Great Britain (4 vols. London, 1854, 1857); M. J. Dumesnil's Histoire des plus célèbres amateurs (1853-1860); F. G. Stephens's 90 Athenaeum articles on British collectors (1873-87); Edward Strahan's (pseud. of Earl Shinn) The Art Treasures of America (1879-1882); and René Brimo's The Evolution of Taste in American Collecting (1938), among others. To Oscar E. Vázquez, "collectors and collections...are a creation of the modern era" with "increased attention to...the collector over the collected object" (Inventing the Art Collection 57-58). Attention to collectors began in the 18th century; by the 19th century, collectors became cultural icons and national figures. Many gave their collections to museums, shaping public taste and the canon. Panelists will examine the discourse around the cultural and national identity of the collector and consider such questions (but not limited to these): How did these narratives shape and revise collectors' images over time? Did narratives about collectors inflect notions of the modern? Of tradition? How were gender, class or national identity applied to collectors? Did narratives about collectors endorse cultural hierarchies? Were collectors tastemakers? public servants? cultural paradigms? How did collectors' perceived motives and desires affect their collections' meanings?