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Salons [ Associational culture ]

… Abstract The salon is one of the most recognizable practices of sociability of the French Enlightenment. While scholars continue to debate the relationship of the salons to the Enlightenment, the salons were nevertheless a defining feature of social life in the Ancien Régime , with hundreds of salons taking place …

Marie Du Deffand [ Art and Literature ]

… Abstract Connoisseurs of art and literature from all over Britain were known to grace Madame du Deffand’s salon on rue Saint-Dominique.   Her correspondence with Horace Walpole gives us a window into how Franco-British … of sociability, both real and imagined. People > Art and Literature Keywords Friendship Correspondence Epistolary Letter Salon Horace Walpole Lespinasse Geoffrin Madame du Deffand, née Marie de Vichy-Champrond, was born in 1698 into an old … of repartee and sociability. The marquise du Deffand was a spirited woman with a sharp tongue. She presided over the salon she established in 1747 from her tonneau (a great hood chair), rapidly coming to rival another famous salonnière , …

Literary Academies [ Clubs & Societies / Associational culture ]

… epistolary interaction and intellectual sociability. From the highly institutionalised royal academies to the academies salonnières of Italy, they incarnated the practices of the educated, intellectual classes in Europe. In Italy, Arcadia … culture Keywords Academy England Arcadia Association Italy France Social network Intellectual circle Meeting Rome Salon The Early Modern era saw literary academies woven liberally into the urban fabric of European cities, becoming one … as universities. Academies were initiated through social relationships and closely conformed in structure to literary salons. In England, meanwhile, until the beginning of the seventeenth century, academies referred to a form of informal …

Musical evenings (Dr Burney's) [ Dance, Music & Songs / Sports & Leisure ]

… was only part of the entertainment, and conversation also took up a fair amount of time. As in the Bluestocking salons, members of the aristocracy freely mixed with the talented, and women, musicians as well as visitors, participated … on an equal footing with the men. Practices > Dance, Music & Songs Places > Sports & Leisure Keywords Conversation Music Salon Artist Dr. Burney Among those who visited the Sunday evening musical parties at the Burneys’ on a more or less … by M. Rack etching and aquatint, published 4 June 1782, National Portrait Gallery, NPG D14563. And yet, the Burney salon can be situated somewhere on a continuum between the private and the public sphere, between literary and musical …

Helen Maria Williams [ Art and Literature / Travel ]

… and historical events from the Revolution to the Restoration. People > Art and Literature People > Travel Keywords Women Salon Letters travelogue French Revolution Girondins napoleonic era National specificities sociable spaces Helen Maria Williams (1761-1827) showed a sustained appetence for literary and political circles. She frequented many salons in Paris and London before becoming a salonnière herself in both capitals. Born to a Scottish father and Welsh mother and from an upper middle-class …

Elizabeth (Robinson) Montagu [ Art and Literature ]

… Abstract Called the ‘Queen of the Bluestockings’ in her own time, Elizabeth Montagu was perhaps the best-known salon hostess during the second half of the eighteenth century. She was a towering figure in circles promoting literary … and generous, she set her own stamp on fashionable London society. People > Art and Literature Keywords Bluestocking Salon Hostess Shakespeare Bulstrode Friendship Correspondence The fourth child of nine surviving siblings, Elizabeth … company, and the Bulstrode circle may well have influenced Elizabeth Montagu’s own decision to start a literary salon afterwards. Witty, lively, and good-looking, Elizabeth Robinson had many suitors, and in 1742, aged 22, she settled …