Dr Camille Mathieu

Camille is an Associate Professor in History and Art History and Visual Culture at the University of Exeter.  She researches the art, architecture, archaeology, and urbanism of France and its colonies from the eighteenth through the early twentieth century.  A specialist of Napoleonic painting, including the early work of Ingres and Géricault, she is currently preparing a book which takes as its subject the creation, spoliation, circulation of art between Rome and Paris and its implications for both history painting and empire-building from 1794 to 1817. Her next project addresses the visual history of water in the urban and argicultural economies of speculation in Louisiana from 1690 to 1800 as they relate to France's colonial ambitions for expoliting the territory's resources.  Through this work, the subject of an AHRC grant, Aqueous Territory, she has cultivated a specific interest and expertise in liquid landscapes and coastal cultural projections.  She is interested in interdisicplinary research, linking up with the work of engineers, human geographers, and marine historians through a wide variety of grant work. 

Office Hours change every term. I am also available by appointment; please email me to secure a time slot.

Biography:

Camille received her doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley in 2014., after pursing her BA from Williams College in History of Art (Williamstown, MA) and an MA from NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts.  Before coming to Exeter, Camille held visiting professorships and lectureships at UC Berkeley, the University of Oxford, and the University of Manchester.

Her research has been supported by numerous fellowships, including: Loeb Fellowship, sponsored by the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich, and Harvard University (2017); the Cox-Kress Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome (2011-2013) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art Rousseau Fellowship (2010-2011). In 2019, she was awarded an AHRC Kluge Center Fellowship at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. 

Camille has also worked extensively in museums worldwide, including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the MoMA, the Musée d’Orsay, the Frick Collection, and most recently, the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. She is fluent in French and Italian.

Research supervision:

I would welcome research proposals by students that deal with the art, architecture, archaeology, and urbanism of France and its colonies from the eighteenth through the early twentieth century. I would specifically encourage students working on concepts of empire, water, materiality, and drawing-as-medium to contact me.