Petra ten-Doesschate Chu

Petra ten-Doesschate Chu
Born (1942-10-15) 15 October 1942
Zeist, Netherlands
OccupationArt historian
Spouse
Fen-Dow Chu
​
(m. 1971)​
Children4
AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship (1986)
Academic background
Alma mater
ThesisFrench Realism and the Dutch Masters: The Influence of Dutch Seventeenth-Century Painting on the Development of French Painting Between 1830 and 1870 (1972)
Doctoral advisor
Academic work
DisciplineArt history
Sub-disciplineGustave Courbet
InstitutionsSeton Hall University

Petra ten-Doesschate Chu (born 15 October 1942) is a Dutch art historian based in the United States. A 1986 Guggenheim Fellow, she has written and edited several books, including Letters of Gustave Courbet (1992), The Popularization of Images (1994), The Most Arrogant Man in France (2007) and Qing Encounters (2015). She is Professor Emerita of Art History and Museum Studies at the Seton Hall University College of Human Development Culture and Media.[1]

Biography

Early life and education

Petra ten-Doesschate was born on 15 October 1942 in Zeist, Netherlands; her father Jurriaan ten Doesschate was an ophthalmologist and her mother Lidy was a pediatrician.[2] Her paternal grandfather Gezienus ten Doesschate was an ophthalmologist and art historian.[3] While working as an au pair in Paris, she attended the University of Paris,[4] where she obtained a diplôme supérieur in 1961.[2] She then spent six years at the University of Utrecht, obtaining a doctoral degree there in 1967.[2][4]

She decided to study in the United States after her father spent a year there as a visiting professor at the University of Michigan, and she wrote letters to New York University and Columbia University, the latter of which accepted her to their doctoral program.[4] A 1967-1971 Noble Fellow,[2] she obtained a PhD in fine arts at Columbia in 1972; her dissertation French Realism and the Dutch Masters: The Influence of Dutch Seventeenth-Century Painting on the Development of French Painting Between 1830 and 1870 was supervised by Theodore Reff and Allen Staley.[2][5]

While studying at Columbia, she worked as an assistant at Roy Andries de Groot's New York City office, with one of her jobs being describing meals for his food journalism pieces (de Groot was blind); in 2025, Chu recalled to The New Yorker that "when he wrote what I had described, it was all in Technicolor".[6] She also worked as a New York City history researcher at the Museum of the City of New York and a Dutch document translator at the New York State Education Department.[4]

Academic career

After working at the Institut Néerlandais from 1965 to 1972, she joined Seton Hall University in 1972 as an assistant professor, before being promoted to associate professor in 1977 and to full professor in 1980.[2] She chaired Seton Hall's department of art and music from 1977 until 1998.[2] She was eventually promoted to professor emerita.[1] She and Barbara Cate co-founded Seton Hall's Master of Arts Program in Museum Professions.[1]

As an academic, she specializes in 19th-century European art,[1] especially in French art and Gustave Courbet. She has written and edited several books, including The Popularization of Images (1994), The Most Arrogant Man in France (2007) and Qing Encounters (2015).[7] She edited and translated a volume of Gustave Courbet's letters, published as The Letters of Gustave Courbet in 1992.[8] She co-edited the Princeton Series in Nineteenth-Century Art, Culture, and Society from 1991 to 1997.[2] She also authored a textbook named Nineteenth Century European Art, published by Prentice Hall in 2002,[9] and she wrote The Illustrated Bartsch's two-part volume on Vivant Denon.[2] In 2008, she and Laurinda S. Dixon published a festschrift on Gabriel P. Weisberg.[10]

She also contributed to several exhibition catalogues,[2] such as The Art of the July Monarchy (1990), French Paintings from the Musée Fabre, Montpellier (2003), and Anton Mauve 1838-1888 (2009).[11][12][13] In addition to academic journals, she often contributed to magazines like Apollo and Arts Magazine.[2]

In 1986, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.[14] In 1999, she served as president of the Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art.[2] She was one of the co-founders of Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide.[15] He was also a 1990 Institute for Advanced Study Fellow, a 1994-1995 Metropolitan Museum of Art Whitney Art History Fellow, and 2013 Getty Research Institute Fellow.[1] She won the 2015 College Art Association Distinguished Teaching of Art History Award.[16]

Personal life

In 1971, she married Fen-Dow Chu, a Taiwanese MIT-educated naval architect and son of artist I-Chao Chu.[2][4] The two had met at a tenant party she and a roommate hosted in order to get a vacuum cleaner to borrow.[4] They have four children.[2]

She lives in South Orange, New Jersey.[2] She is fluent in Dutch, English, French and German, She also started learning Chinese after the two married.[4]

Works

  • French Realism and the Dutch Masters, Haentjens Dekker & Gumbert (1974)[2]
  • (ed.) Courbet in Perspective (1977)[17]
  • (with Gabriel P. Weisberg) The Realist Tradition: French Painting and Drawing 1830-1900 (1980)[18]
  • Dominique Vivant Denon (vol. 121 of The Illustrated Bartsch; 1985 and 1988)[2]
  • (ed. and trans.) Letters of Gustave Courbet (1992)[a]
  • (ed. with Gabriel P. Weisberg) The Popularization of Images: Visual Culture under the July Monarchy (1994)[b]
  • (with Jörg Zutter) Courbet: Artiste et promoteur de son oeuvre (1998, exhibition catalogue)[2]
  • Gustave Courbet: En Revoltör Lanserar Sitt Verk, National Museum (1999)[2]
  • Nineteenth-Century European Art (2002)[2]
  • Beyond the Frame: Impressionism Revisited: The Sculptures of J. Seward Johnson, Jr. (2003, Bullfinch)[2]
  • The Most Arrogant Man in France: Gustave Courbet and the Nineteenth-century Media Culture (2007)[c]
  • (ed. with Laurinda S. Dixon) Twenty-First Century Perspectives on Nineteenth-Century Art: Essays in Honor of Gabriel P. Weisberg (2008)[10]
  • (ed. with Ning Ding) Qing Encounters: Artistic Exchanges Between China and the West (2015)[33]

Notes

  1. ^ Reviews of this book: [19][8][20][21]
  2. ^ Reviews of this book: [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]
  3. ^ Reviews of this book: [30][31][32]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Profile Petra ten-Doesschate Chu". Seton Hall University. Retrieved 4 March 2026.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u "Chu, Petra ten–Doesschate 1942- (Petra Chu)". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 4 March 2026.
  3. ^ Vos, Hilke (2 July 2017). "Toen in Zwolle: de drogisterij van J. ten Doesschate in de Diezerstraat". In De Buurt (in Dutch). Retrieved 6 March 2026.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Bonomo, Josephine (6 November 1977). "Achievers: The Chus of South Orange". The New York Times. p. NJ18. ProQuest 123261391.
  5. ^ Chu, Petra ten-Doesschate (1975). French Realism and the Dutch Masters: The Influence of Dutch Seventeenth-Century Painting on the Development of French Painting Between 1830 and 1870 (PhD thesis). Columbia University.
  6. ^ Birdsall, John (25 July 2025). "The Semi-Fictional Book That Transformed the Culinary World". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 6 March 2026.
  7. ^ "CV of Petra ten-Doesschate Chu" (PDF). Seton Hall University. Retrieved 6 March 2026.
  8. ^ a b Faunce, Sarah (1993). "Review of Letters of Gustave Courbet; Courbet. To Venture Independence". The Burlington Magazine. 135 (1080): 225–226. ISSN 0007-6287. JSTOR 885494.
  9. ^ "Nineteenth Century European Art". A Capella Books. Retrieved 6 March 2026.
  10. ^ a b "Twenty-First Century Perspectives on Nineteenth-Century Art: Essays in Honor of Gabriel P. Weisberg". Mullen Books. Retrieved 6 March 2026.
  11. ^ Marrinan, Michael (1990). "The July Monarchy". Art Journal. 49 (3): 301–305. doi:10.2307/777122. ISSN 0004-3249. JSTOR 777122.
  12. ^ "Review of French Paintings from the Musée Fabre, Montpellier". The Burlington Magazine. 146 (1213): 270–270. 2004. ISSN 0007-6287. JSTOR 20073498.
  13. ^ B.C. (2010). "Review of Anton Mauve 1838-1888, Michiel Plomp". The Burlington Magazine. 152 (1283): 116–116. ISSN 0007-6287. JSTOR 40601545.
  14. ^ "Petra T. Chu". Guggenheim Fellowships. Retrieved 4 March 2026.
  15. ^ "Interview with Petra ten-Doesschate Chu, Co-Founder of Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide". Rutgers Art Review. Retrieved 4 March 2026.
  16. ^ "Awards for Distinction | Programs". College Art Association. Retrieved 5 March 2026.
  17. ^ Sheon, Aaron (1979). "Review of Observation and Reflection: Claude Monet; Camille Pissarro, A Biography; Seurat in Perspective; Courbet in Perspective; Impressionism in Perspective". Art Journal. 39 (2): 143–145. doi:10.2307/776408. ISSN 0004-3249. JSTOR 776408.
  18. ^ Saisselin, Rémy G. (1983). "Review of The Realist Tradition: French Painting and Drawing 1830-1900". Leonardo. 16 (1): 70–70. doi:10.2307/1575067. ISSN 0024-094X. JSTOR 1575067.
  19. ^ Bock-Weiss, Catherine C. (1993). "Letters of Well-Known Artists". Art Journal. 52 (2): 97–101. doi:10.2307/777244. ISSN 0004-3249. JSTOR 777244.
  20. ^ Paves-Yashinsky, Palomba (1993). "Review of Letters of Gustave Courbet". Nineteenth-Century French Studies. 21 (3/4): 526–528. ISSN 0146-7891. JSTOR 23537247.
  21. ^ Raser, Timothy (1994). "Review of Letters of Gustave Courbet". The French Review. 67 (6): 1090–1091. ISSN 0016-111X. JSTOR 397683.
  22. ^ Coates, Carrol F. (1996). "Review of The Popularization of Images: Visual Culture under the July Monarchy". The French Review. 70 (2): 373–374. ISSN 0016-111X. JSTOR 396777.
  23. ^ Jay, Robert (1995). "Review of The Popularization of Images: Visual Culture under the July Monarchy". Nineteenth-Century French Studies. 23 (3/4): 534–536. ISSN 0146-7891. JSTOR 23537111.
  24. ^ Jobling, Paul (1995). "Visual Culture and the July Monarchy". Print Quarterly. 12 (2): 199–200. ISSN 0265-8305. JSTOR 41825012.
  25. ^ Mainardi, Patricia (1997). "Review of The Popularization of Images: Visual Culture under the July Monarchy". The Journal of Modern History. 69 (3): 605–608. ISSN 0022-2801. JSTOR 2953623.
  26. ^ McWilliam, Neil (1995). "Review of The Popularization of Images. Visual Culture under the July Monarchy". The Burlington Magazine. 137 (1105): 255–255. ISSN 0007-6287. JSTOR 886429.
  27. ^ Pilbeam, Pamela (1996). "Review of The Popularization of Images: Visual Culture under the July Monarchy". History. 81 (263): 480–481. ISSN 0018-2648. JSTOR 24423396.
  28. ^ Whiteley, Linda (1997). "Review of The Popularization of Images. Visual Culture under the July Monarchy". The English Historical Review. 112 (445): 228–229. ISSN 0013-8266. JSTOR 578601.
  29. ^ Wilker, Jenny Squires (1996). "We Have Met "Le Peuple" and It Is Not Us". The Print Collector's Newsletter. 27 (2): 77–79. ISSN 0032-8537. JSTOR 24555777.
  30. ^ Desbuissons, Frédérique (2008). "In Media Res". Oxford Art Journal. 31 (3): 442–447. ISSN 0142-6540. JSTOR 20542857.
  31. ^ D'Souza, Aruna (2008). "Review of The Most Arrogant Man in France: Gustave Courbet and the Nineteenth-Century Media Culture". The Art Bulletin. 90 (3): 489–493. ISSN 0004-3079. JSTOR 20619624.
  32. ^ O'Reilly, Chiara (2008). "Review of The Most Arrogant Man in France: Gustave Courbet and The Nineteenth-Century Media Culture". Nineteenth-Century French Studies. 36 (3/4): 352–354. ISSN 0146-7891. JSTOR 23538574.
  33. ^ Wong, Aida Yuen (2017). "Review of Qing Encounters: Artistic Exchanges Between China and the West". The Burlington Magazine. 159 (1375): 826–826. ISSN 0007-6287. JSTOR 44870102.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.