At the Service of Art: Domestic Servants and Their Artists

This panel will examine the pivotal role played by an unexpected figure in the lives of artists: the domestic servant. Most artists employed domestic help: they belonged to the higher classes or to the bourgeoisie, for whom having domestic servants was commonplace and a marker of status. Yet, servants have not been the subject of much art historical attention. Examining their lives reveals the specific and often unexpected tasks they performed, ranging from cooking and cleaning to posing for artworks, taking part in an experimental lifestyle, and caring for an artist’s legacy.

Murrell’s (2018) reconsideration of Laure’s role and importance as the black maid in Manet’s Olympia has significantly altered how the artwork is interpreted. More broadly, renewed interest in the depiction of women’s domestic work has highlighted the social and political significance of certain artworks (Thompson and Garber, 2024; Berry, 2025). Building on this research, this panel proposes looking beyond representation to foreground narratives that convey the diverse and crucial roles domestic servants have played in artists’ lives.

This panel welcomes papers which examine how domestic servants enabled artists’ careers and the making of their work. Particular attention should be paid to broader issues, such as the mechanisms that facilitated their erasure from art history and the power imbalances (in terms of gender, class and race) at the heart of the relationships between artists and domestic servants.

Submit your Paper via this form. Please download, complete and send it directly to the Session Convenor(s) below by Sunday 2 November 2025:

Apolline Malevez, Ghent University, apolline.malevez@ugent.be