Faculty

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 has completed a book-length project titled Russian Venus: The Female Nude in Art and Culture of the Imperial Era, which is now under review. She served as president of the Society of Historians of East European, Eurasian, and Russian Art and Architecture (SHERA) from 2013 until 2015.

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

Books and Edited Publications

Russian Venus: The Female Nude in Art and Culture of the Imperial Era (under review).

“Eighteenth-Century Russian Art,” guest editor, special issue, Vivliofika 11 (2023). DOI:10.21900/j.vivliofika.v11 

• “Introduction: Russo-European Artistic Encounters in the Eighteenth Century.” 1-4.
• “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:

• The Slavic and East European Review 94, no. 4 (October 2016): 737-39.
• The Russian Review 75, no. 1 (Jan. 2016): 142-44. 
• 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

“ ‘Niu’ in the Work of Grigorii Miasoedov and Vasilii Perov.” In The Partnership of Travelling Art Exhibitions. On the 150th Anniversary of its Founding, edited by T.V. Yudenkova, 186-98. Moscow: State Tretiakov Gallery, 2022. In Russian.

“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).