Book Talk: Eiffel Tower Confidential

Hollis Clayson comes to The Barnes Foundation on Thursday, October 22, to talk about the forgotten history of the Eiffel Tower. The talk runs from 12 PM to 1 PM in the Roberts Gallery, so it's a lunchtime thing rather than an evening one.

Clayson is a Professor Emerita of Art History and Bergen Evans Professor Emerita in the Humanities at Northwestern University, and she's a chevalier in the French Ordre des Palmes académiques. She'll be discussing her upcoming book, Eiffel Tower Confidential: What It Meant and What It Stands For, which is due in 2027. The tower went up in 1889, and Clayson's work looks at the parts of its history that don't usually make the tourist brochures: its ties to the French Empire, the connection between its complex lighting and surveillance, and how its appearance changed radically after its original ornamentation was stripped away in 1937.

This isn't her first time writing about Paris. Her previous books include Paris Illuminated: Essays on Art and Lighting in the Belle Époque (2019) and Painted Love: Prostitution in the Art of the Impressionist Era (1991), and she was named the 2024 College Art Association Distinguished Scholar. If you've got a thing for the city's history, this is right in her wheelhouse.

The talk is hosted by The Barnes Foundation, whose permanent collection holds paintings by Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, Picasso, Modigliani, and Van Gogh alongside African sculpture, metalwork, and decorative arts. Tickets are $10 on-site and $8 online, and it's free for members and students. The talk is Thursday, October 22, from 12 PM to 1 PM in the Roberts Gallery.