Profile
Margaret Samu works on 18th- and 19th-century art and design of Europe and the Russian Empire in a global context. She earned her Ph.D. at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts after receiving her Bachelor’s degree in Art History and French from Wellesley College. Her work has been published internationally, in journals such as The Art Bulletin, Искусствознание, Nineteenth-Century Studies, and Эксперимент/Experiment, as well as a volume she co-edited, From Realism to the Silver Age (Northern Illinois University Press, 2014). She has presented lectures and conference papers on her work in Russia, England, the United States, and Canada, and has received grants from the Mellon Foundation, the Fulbright Program, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Library of Congress, and Dumbarton Oaks, among other institutions. Dr. Samu is currently working on a book-length project titled Russian Venus: The Female Nude in the Art World of Imperial Russia. She served as president of the Society of Historians of East European, Eurasian, and Russian Art and Architecture (SHERA) from 2013 until 2015.
Degrees Held
Ph.D. Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
M.A. Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
B.A. in Art HIstory and French, Wellesley College
Professional Affiliation
19v Working Group on Russian Culture, Literature, and the Arts
Association for Slavic, East European & Eurasian Studies
Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art
College Art Association
Historians of Eighteenth-Century Art and Architecture
Nineteenth-Century Studies Association
Society of Historians of Eastern European, Eurasian and Russian Art and Architecture
Society for the History of Collecting
Recent Publications
Books and Edited Publications
Russian Venus: The Female Nude in the Art World of Imperial Russia (in progress).
“Eighteenth-Century Russian Art,” guest editor, special issue, Vivliofika: Journal of Eighteenth-Century Russian Culture 11 (2023). DOI:10.21900/j.vivliofika.v11
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“Introduction: Russo-European Artistic Encounters in the Eighteenth Century.” 1-4.
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“Andrei Matveev: Painting Allegory from Antwerp to Russia.” 5-36.
From Realism to the Silver Age: New Studies in Russian Artistic Culture, edited by Rosalind Blakesley and Margaret Samu. DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 2014. Introduction (co-authored with R.P. Blakesley); “Making a Case for Realism: The Female Nude in Russian Satirical Images of the 1860s,” 44-58.
Reviewed in:
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The Slavic and East European Review 94, no. 4 (October 2016): 737-39.
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The Russian Review 75, no. 1 (Jan. 2016): 142-44.
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The Slavic and East European Journal 59, no. 4 (Winter 2015): 642-44.
Scholarly Articles
“Karl Briullov’s Last Day of Pompeii at the Paris Salon of 1834.” The Art Bulletin 103, no. 2 (June 2021). 77-103. DOI: 10.1080/00043079.2021.1847579
“Exhibiting Westernization: Aleksei Venetsianov’s Nudes and the Russian Art Market 1820-1850.” Nineteenth-Century Studies 25 (2015). 131-147.
“ ‘Serving Art…’ Artist and Model in the Nineteenth-Century Russia Art World.” Art History. [“ ‘Служа искусству…’ Художник и модель в русской художественной культуре XIX века.” Искусствознание] 3-4 (Autumn 2014). 434-447. In Russian.
“The Nude in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Russian Sculpture.” In “The Third Dimension: New Perspectives on Russian Sculpture,” edited by Musya Glants, Marie Lampard, and Wendy Salmond, special issue, Experiment/Эксперимент 18 (2012). 33-60.
“Evelyn Beatrice Longman: Establishing a Career in Public Sculpture.” Woman’s Art Journal 25, no. 2 (Fall 2004/Winter 2005). 8-15.
Anthologized Essays
“Peter the Great’s Roman Venus: Problems of Research and Interpretation.” In Petrine Monuments of Russia and Europe: Research, Preservation, Cultural Tourism, [“Античная Венера Петра Великого: проблемы исследования и интерпретации.” Петровские памятники России и Европы: Изучение, cохранение, культурный туризм] edited by A.V. Kobak, 624-634. St. Petersburg: Evropeiskii Dom, 2016. In Russian.
“The Butter Sculpture of Caroline S. Brooks (1840-1913),” co-authored with Rebecca Bedell. In Women and Things, 1750-1950: Gendered Material Strategies, edited by Maureen Daly Goggin and Beth Fowkes Tobin, 205-225. Aldershot, Burlington: Ashgate, 2009.
Museum Catalogue Publications
“Modelos en academias de bellas artes y en estudios privados.” In La Tradición Académica/Академическая традиция, exh. cat., edited by Semyon Mikhailovsky, 54-65. Madrid: Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando; St. Petersburg: Academy of Arts, 2017. In Spanish and Russian.
“Giorgio Vasari and Workshop Holy Family” and “Lavinia Fontana Holy Family.” In Divine Mirrors: The Virgin Mary in the Visual Arts, edited by Melissa Katz, 188-91, 196-98. New York: Oxford University, 2001.
Reference Publications
“Blackness, Immobility & Visibility in Europe (1600-1800) A Collaborative Timeline,” Journal18 (September 2020). Contributed images and information on events from the Russian Empire.
“Fedor Bruni,” “Fedor Matveev,” “Semen Shchedrin.” In Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2015-16.
“Longman, Evelyn.” In Encyclopedia of American Art vol. 3, edited by Joan Marter, 180-181. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
“Impressionism: Art and Modernity.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. (October 2004).
“Evelyn Longman.” Inventory of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian Archives of American Art. Contributed 94 new records of sculptures by Longman, and new information on previously documented works (May 2002).
Performances and Appearances
2024 Assoc. of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies Annual Convention, Philadelphia, PA. Roundtable: “Peredvizhniki on the Move: Art and Mobility in Late 19the-century Russia”; Panel Chair and Discussant: “Form/Formation: Race, Aesthetics, and Empire in Russia’s Long 19th Century.”
2023 Northeast Assoc. of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies, New York, NY. Paper: “Eroticism on the Dnipro: Rusalka Images in Nineteenth-Century Russia.”
2023 University of Georgia, Athens, GA. “Rusalka: Slavic Folklore, Supernatural Women, and the Ukrainian Other,”
2022 Assoc. of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies Annual Convention, Boston, MA. Paper: "Andrei Matveev: Painting Allegory from Antwerp to Russia."
2021 The Peredvizhniki in the Context of Russian and European Artistic Life. The History of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions. Myth and Reality. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Online. Paper: “ 'Niu' in the Work of Grigorii Miasoedov and Vasilii Perov.”
2021 Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia, New York University, Online. “Artists, the Art Market, and Images of Female Beauty in Nineteenth-Century Russia.”
2020 Assoc. of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies Annual Convention, Online. Paper: "Peredvizhniki and the Nude."
2018 Assoc. of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies Annual Convention, Boston, MA. Paper: “Art Exhibitions at Auctions and Estate Sales in St. Petersburg: 1750-1850”; Roundtable: “Approaches to Money, Class, and Taste in Russian Culture”
2017 Assoc. of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies Annual Convention, Chicago, IL. Paper: “The Making of Karl Briullov’s Last Day of Pompeii”
2017 What’s Russian about Russian Realism? Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia, New York University. Paper: “Visual Literacy, Artistic Ideals, and the Problem of Realism”
2017 Translations and Dialogues: The Reception of Russian Art Abroad, Centro Studi sulle Arti della Russia, Università Ca’Foscari, Venice. Paper: “The French Reception of Karl Briullov’s Last Day of Pompeii”
2017 Seminar on Collecting and Display, Institute of Historical Research, University of London. Paper: “Venus in Furs: Art Collecting and the Female Nude in 18th-19th-Century Russia”
2016 Hoover Library and Archives, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA. Paper: “Historical and Political Context of Russian Art Collecting in America: Boris Bakhmeteff”
2015 Assoc. of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies Annual Convention, Philadelphia, PA. Paper: “Artistic Rivalries and the Female Nude in Rome 1822-1848” Panel discussant: “Marginal Women: Prostitutes and Virgins in Russian Print and Visual Culture”
2015 Seventh Annual Peter the Great Congress, St. Petersburg, Russia. Paper: “Peter the Great’s Roman Venus: Problems of Research and Interpretation” (in Russian)
2014 Assoc. of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies Annual Convention, San Antonio, TX. Paper: “Baroque Prints and Peter the Great’s Summer Garden”
2014 College Art Association Annual Conference, Chicago, IL. Paper: “A Roman Venus in the Tsar’s Baroque Garden: Orthodox Blasphemy, Soviet Scandal”
Awards And Honors
2017-2018 Faculty Research Grant, The New School
2017 Franklin Research Grant, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, PA
2016-2017 Writer in Residence, Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia, New York University, New York, NY
2016 Mary Zirin Prize, Association for Women in Slavic Studies
2014 Summer Fellowship for Garden and Landscape Studies, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.
2011-2012 Swann Foundation Fellowship for Caricature and Cartoon, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
2010-2011 Sylvan C. Coleman and Pamela Coleman Memorial Fund Fellowship, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
2007-2008 Fulbright Fellowship Grant to Russia
Portfolio
Margaret Samu
From Realism to the Silver Age: New Studies in Russian Artistic Culture
A Russian Masterpiece in Paris: Karl Briullov’s Last Day of Pompeii at the 1834 Salon
“Eighteenth-Century Russian Art" forum in Vivliofika