Profile

Hannah Rose Blakeley specializes in European art of the long nineteenth century, with a focus on Belgium. Her dissertation, “The Carnivalesque and Belgian Modernism,” investigates how turn-of-the-century Belgian artists (especially James Ensor and Léon Spilliaert) invoke the carnivalesque to engage Northern 16th- and 17th-century visual traditions while grappling with themes of political upheaval, social transgression, and modern identity.

Blakeley received her B.A. in interdisciplinary studies and French from Emory University and an MLitt in art history from the University of St Andrews, where she was a Robert T. Jones Memorial Scholar. Her master’s dissertation, “Félicien Rops (1833–1898), Realism, and the Female Form,” built on her curation of an online exhibition of Rops’s prints in Emory’s Michael C. Carlos Museum, where she served as an intern. Before beginning her doctoral studies, Blakeley taught English for a year at Die Höhere Graphische Bundes-Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt in Vienna, Austria, through Fulbright Austria. In addition to Belgian modernism, her research interests include 19th- and early 20th-century Dutch art, printmaking, miniatures, and text-image relationships. 

Blakeley has presented her research at international conferences in the UK, the Netherlands, and the U.S. She recently published a feuillet entitled “Le 17e siècle de Rops: vers la modernité,” in conjunction with a Henri De Braekeleer exhibition at the Musée Félicien Rops in Namur, Belgium. She is the recipient of a Fulbright U.S. Student Program research grant (2022–23) and a Belgian American Education Foundation fellowship (2022–23) in support of her dissertation research in Belgium.