Van Gogh and Nature

Maura Coughlin is associate professor of visual studies in the Department of English and Cultural Studies at Bryant University. Trained as an historian of nineteenth-century European art, she is currently working on the visual culture of coastal ecology and the rise of marine sciences in France; theatrical taxidermy at World's Fairs; the invention of French prehistory; and the Outsider Art masterwork of the nineteenth century, the Ideal Palace. Her research and writing integrates contemporary interdisciplinary and theoretical work on ecocriticism and materiality with primary research in museums, archives, artist communities, and landscapes.