Mary Sheriff

Mary Diana Lee Sheriff (September 19, 1950 – October 19, 2016) was an American art historian, and W.R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Art History at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who specialized in eighteenth-century French art, decorative arts, gender studies, and material culture.

In addition, Sheriff served as the editor of the journal Eighteenth-Century Studies from 1993 to 1998.

She was also a founding member of the Historians of Eighteenth-Century Art and Architecture.

In 2004 and 2007, Sheriff co-taught with Ann Bermingham a pre-doctoral seminar, titled "Sensibility/Sensibilité in Eighteenth-Century England and France," at the Getty Research Institute.

She died on October 19, 2016, at the age of 66.

Sheriff was a leading scholar on 18th- and 19th-century French art and culture, transforming the field by re-evaluating rococo painting, introducing feminist perspectives, and examining European art in a global context.

Her work focused on issues of creativity, sexuality, gender, and travel and culture exchange.

Her research included traditional facets of visual culture such as painting and sculpture, while also incorporating gardens, book illustration, material culture, performance, and the graphic arts.

Her scholarly achievements were recognized through numerous visiting professorships, invitations to lecture around the globe, awards and fellowships, as well as numerous grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Getty Foundation, and the American Council of Learned Societies.