Plesch organized, chaired, and presented at International conference

Professor of Art Véronique Plesch organized and chaired the session “The River: Reality, Myth, and Metaphor” (Le Fleuve: Réalité, Mythe, et Métaphore) at the international conference “Water and Sea in Word and Image” (L’Eau et la mer dans les textes et les images) held at the University of Luxembourg July 12–16, 2021 (originally scheduled for July 2020, the conference was postponed and was held online).

Plesch also delivered a paper. In “The River of Life: Drawing Lessons from Thomas Cole in Images and Words,” she considered works that present surprising connections with Maine: a young Waterville lady painted a copy after Thomas Cole (today in Waterville Historical Society); a minister, who hailed from Hallowell and settled in New York City, acquired the four paintings that form Cole’s The Voyage of Life and had them reproduced; and a mate from a schooner from Machias, Maine, annotated a copy of a book that draws moral lessons from Cole’s series. All these instances bear witness to the reception of Cole’s celebrated paintings while, combined with writings by Cole himself and by others, as well as with prints and paintings reproducing The Voyage of Life, weave a fascinating fabric of word and image interactions.