In Conversation

Mary Tavener Holmes, Ph.D., is an independent scholar with a specialty in the art of the eighteenth century. Her publications include De Watteau à Fragonard: Les fêtes galantes (with Christoph Vogtherr, 2014) and Nicolas Lancret’s Dance before a Fountain (2006).Christoph Martin Vogtherr is General Director of the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation, Potsdam. Prior to that, he was director at the Hamburger Kunsthalle and the Wallace Collection. He is a specialist of French eighteenth-century art and the history of art collecting.

A "stimulating book"Peter Humfrey, University of St Andrews (Em.). In: The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 168 (April 2026), pp. 413–414.

• Acknowledgements IXList of FiguresIntroduction1 Social Spaces: Displaying and Discussing Paintings in Eighteenth-Century European Collections2 A New Theoretical Framework3 The Vanishing Role of Iconography4 Setting the Stage: Vienna and Versailles at the Beginning of the Eighteenth CenturyPart 1: Pioneers of the New PrinciplesIntroduction to Part 11 Lothar Franz Graf Schönborn at Pommersfelden, Schloss Weißenstein2 Eugen Prince of Savoy at Vienna, Upper Belvedere3 Philippe II, Duc d’Orléans at Paris, Palais Royal4 Pierre Crozat at Paris, rue de RichelieuPart 2: New Approaches by Private CollectorsIntroduction to Part 25 Jeanne-Baptiste d’Albert, Comtesse de Verrue at Paris, rue du Cherche-Midi6 Jean de Jullienne at Paris, rue des Gobelins7 François Berger at Paris, rue Saint-Marc8 Etienne-François, Duc de Choiseul at Paris, rue de RichelieuPart 3: Rulers and InstitutionsIntroduction to Part 39 Elector Friedrich August II of Saxony / August III King of Poland at Dresden, Stallhof10 The Electors Palatine at Düsseldorf, Schloss, and at Mannheim, Schloss11 The French Royal Collection at Paris, Palais du Luxembourg12 The Académie Royal de Peinture et de Sculpture at the Salon, Paris, Palais du Louvre13 Abel-François Poisson de Vandières, Marquis de Marigny et de Menars at Paris, rue Saint-Thomas-du-Louvre14 Friedrich II King of Prussia at Potsdam, Schloss Sanssouci and BildergaleriePart 4: The British ContributionIntroduction to Part 415 Sir Robert Walpole at Houghton Hall16 Thomas Coke, Earl of Leicester at Holkham Hall17 John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute at Luton HooPart 5: On the Verge of the Museum AgeIntroduction to Part 518 The Imperial Collection at Vienna, Upper BelvedereConclusion: Principles of Eighteenth-Century Paintings DisplaysBibliography