After practicing as an attorney in inheritance and urbanism law (2015-2017), Pauline Deschamps-Kahn began a career in art history. At the Université Panthéon-Assas (DU 2019) she studied "Methods of Expertise in Art Objects and the Art Market." Deschamps-Kahn then studied Italian Renaissance painting at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), writing a master's thesis on "Underdrawings in Florentine Painting in the Early 16th century" (2019-2021). Her doctoral dissertation (2021-2025), entitled "The Representation of Fabrics by Italian Painters during the Renaissance (1480-1545): Sources, Materials and Materiality" explores the origins and the circulation of techniques between painter's studios and textile artisans, as well as the use of specific materials _ supports, pigments, binders, and solvents _ that were available to painters in their search to achieve pictorial effects that conveyed the texture of fabrics. Deschamps-Kahn's dissertation also proposes a system of characterization and identification based on technical analysis ans scientific imaging. As a scientific researcher of works of art, Pauline Deschamps-Kahn has been an associate at France's national museum laboratory, the Centre de recherche des musées français (C2RMF) since 2023.
Pauline Deschamps-Kahn teaches the course "Research Practices: Description, Conceptualization, Interpretation" and supervises master's theses in the humanities for the multidisciplinary cycle of national higher education (CPES2) at the École Normale Supérieure (2022-2025).
Since 2024, she is an Associate Researcher in the service of French patrimony at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF) where she studies the origins of the scientific analysis of works of art. With Christopher Bakke, she is preparing a transcription and critical analysis of the text of Louis Pasteur's Lessons of Geology, Physics, and Chemistry at the École des Beaux-Arts (1863-1865).
In 2025, Deschamps-Kahn deepened her expertise in the study and analysis of historic textiles with technical sessions at the International Center for the Study of Ancient Textiles.
Pauline Deschamps-Kahn's principal ares of expertise are the identification and analysis of drawings, paintings, and textiles of the Early Moderne European period (15th - 16th centuries).
Pauline Deschamps-Kahn
PUBLICATIONS
2024
Laure Chevalier - Pauline Deschamps-Kahn "Les entrées triomphales à Milan, Florence et Bologne en 1515: Les artistes italiens au service de Léon X et François Ier", Ecclésiastiques, intellectuels et artistes au service du prince en pays bourguignons et italiens (XIVe-XVIe siècles).Actes du colloque de Ferrare, Centre européen d'Études bourguignonnes, 64, 2024.
Angela Cerasuolo, Pauline Deschamps-Kahn, Helen Glanville and Philippe Walter "At the origins of Raphael's practice",Raffello 500 anni dopo, Roma, Officina Libraria, 2024.
2023
Pauline Deschamps-Kahn, "La mise en œuvre des pigments et la pratique picturale pour la représentation des étoffes noires en Italie au XVIe siècle: une enquête historique et scientifique" La couleur noire à la Renaissance, le Verger, Bouquet XXVI.
Pauline Deschamps-Kahn, "La matérialité dans le processus créatif d'une peinture: l'exemple du dessins sous-jacent" Matières, Matériaux et (Im)Matérialité, EPHE, 2023.
FORMATIONS SPÉCIALES
XRF andHyperspectral Imaging - 2021-2022 (LAMS).
"Techniques picturales (1400-1900)" - 2021-2022 (Université d'été de l'Université Paris I - Centre Malher)
"Couleurs, Arts et Industrie" - 2023 (École des Mines - Paris PSL)
"Microscope Optique: Étude des échantillons de peintures" - 2023 (C2RMF)
"Régie des œuvres et manipulation des collections" - 2024 (C2RMF)
"Connaissances de base et Connaissances approfondies pour l'étude des textiles anciens" - 2025 (Sessions Techniques 1 et 2 du CIETA (Centre International d'Étude des Textiles Anciens) de Lyon.