“It’s that time abroad that sparked my interest,” she said. That spark carried her through her Master’s degree at the University of Paris/Sorbonne and a Ph.D. program at the University of Washington. She is now a Professor of Art History here at UAB, where she studies 18th-20th-century European art and visual culture.
In her forthcoming book “Art and Celebrity in the Age of Reynolds and Siddons,” McPherson delves into the concept of fame in 18th-century theater and visual art.
“For me,” McPherson said, “Siddons exemplifies a new sort of modern, media-based celebrity in which the public came to play an increasingly prominent role in creating celebrity culture and the particular challenges women performing in the public sphere still faced.”
“I had researched the late 19th-century actress Sarah Bernhardt and theatrical celebrity and became interested in tracing the origins of modern celebrity back to the 18th century and the visual and performing arts,” she said.
One chapter from McPherson’s book examines the pallor, or sickly paleness, associated with stage actress Sarah Siddons, who was popular during the late 18th century.
McPherson turned this chapter into an article, “Tragic Pallor and Siddons,” which was published in the Summer 2015 edition of Eighteenth-Century Studies, the official journal of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.
For this article, McPherson was named the recipient of the 2016 Annibel Jenkins Prize for the best article on the subject of theatre and performance history in the 18th Century. This award was given by the Southeastern American Society for 18th-century Studies.
“It was a great honor for me to receive recognition from peers in the field for my scholarship and timely since my book on ‘Art and Celebrity in the Age of Reynolds and Siddons,’ which the article is related to, will be published next year by the Pennsylvania State University Press,” she said.
McPherson is currently working on a study of the artist’s studio and the shifting image of the artist in France that will include famous figures such as Corot, Manet, Matisse, and Picasso.
Brodie Foster is a 2015-16 UAB Digital Media fellow and an English major with a concentration in Literature and a minor in Digital Community Studies. She works with videography, editing, and writing.
