TOYING WITH COSMOPOLITANISM: CHINOISERIE IN GARDEN DESIGN UNDER CATHERINE THE GREAT with Jennifer Milam

In 1771, Catherine the Great translated Chambers’ Designs of Chinese Buildings into Russian, which led to the creation of the largest complex of Chinoiserie in any 18th century European garden. Taking as its focus the gardens of Tsarskoe Selo, this talk explores the tensions between cosmopolitanism, exoticism and imperialism in Russian garden design under Catherine the Great.

JENNIFER MILAM is an Associate Professor in the Department of Art History at the University of Sydney. Her books include the Historical Dictionary of Rococo Art (2011), Fragonard’s Playful Paintings. Visual Games in Rococo Art(2006) and Women, Art and the Politics of Identity in Eighteenth-Century Europe (2003).

Vladimir Borovikovsky, Catherine the Great walking in the Gardens of Tsarskoe Selo, circa 1794