Prestige, Publicity, and the Woman Amateur of Art in Eighteenth-Century Paris: A Look at Madame la Présidente de Bandeville

Abstract: A fierce late-eighteenth-century lexical debate proves revealing when studying women and their collections in eighteenth-century France. The surviving historical record shows that very few women received the title and honor of amateur – designating one who is an art-lover and the highest honor granted an owner of a collection. Nonetheless, the need for a debate over the correct feminine form of the word proves that the proliferation and visibility of women amateurs were more concentrated than would be expected granted their relative invisibility today. Further, using a feminine form of the word had the effect of 'othering' women and their collecting activities from a male-dominated practice. This essay focusses on the collection of Madame la Présidente de Bandeville; with her collection publicized in the male-dominated space of the guidebook, she was well known in her own time, and her agency in publicizing her collection is a strong example of the power of women to transform domestic spaces into a site for advancing public knowledge and enjoyment, however limited or elite that audience may have been. This essay is the 2024 Winner of the ASECS Women's Caucus MacCauley Prize.