Skip to main content Accessibility Policy

Colleen E. Yarger

Art history professor

Education

  • Ph.D., Art History, Virginia Commonwealth University
  • M.A., Art History, Syracuse University
  • B.S., Art History, Art Education, Nazareth University

Credentials

  • Professor of art history, 2025–present, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA
  • Adjunct faculty, 2015–18, Brightpoint Community College
  • Adjunct faculty, 2014–16, Randolph-Macon College
  • Adjunct faculty, 2011–13, Virginia Commonwealth University
    • Graduate teaching assistant (instructor of record), 2009–13
    • Adjunct faculty, 2010
  • Adjunct art history faculty, 2014–21, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Organizations

  • Society of Print Scholars
  • Virginia Alliance of Museums (VAM)

Publications and presentations

Books

  • Co-author with Michael R. Taylor, Van Gogh, Monet, Degas: The Mellon Collection of French Art from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2018.
  • Author, A Sporting Vision: The Paul Mellon Collection of British Sporting Art from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2018. (Nominated for 2019 William MB Berger Prize for British Art History)

Essays

  • Catalogue Essay, “Drawn to Nature: 300 Years of Natural History Illustration,” in Intrepid Audubon: The Birds of America, 1–15. National Sporting Library & Museum, 2025.

Conference presentations

  • 29th National Grove Park Inn Arts & Crafts Conference, Ashville, NC, Paper Title: “The Die-Hard ‘Dazzle’ Style of Louis Sullivan,” 2016
  • 73rd Annual Southeastern College Art Conference (SECAC), Roanoke, Virginia, Paper Title: “Hit (or Omit) the Books! The Place of the Art History Survey Text in Online Classrooms,” 2016
  • 72nd Annual Southeastern College Art Conference (SECAC), Pittsburgh, PA, Paper Title: “The ‘Dazzle Technique’ and Aesthetic Movement Architecture,” 2015
  • 71st Annual Southeastern College Art Conference (SECAC), Sarasota, FL, Paper Title: “Louis Sullivan’s Skyscrapers and the Renaissance,” 2014
  • Traditions-III – 19th Annual Symposium on Architectural History & the Decorative Arts,” Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, VA, Paper Title: “Louis Henri Sullivan: Monumental Classicism, the Aesthetic Movement, and the Skyscraper,” 2011
  • South Asian Studies Association (SASA) Fifth Annual Conference, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, Paper Title: “Bringing History into the Bollywood Film: Changes in Akbar Period Set Designs,” 2011
  • Insights Student Symposium, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, Paper Title: “Gericault, Yellow Fever, and Academic Art,” 2011
  • Traditions II – the 18th Annual Symposium on Architectural History & the Decorative Arts, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Virginia, Paper Title: “Jefferson’s Virginia State Capitol: Materials for a New History,” 2010
  • Art & Text Graduate Student Symposium, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, Paper Title: “Seeing Louis Sullivan’s Transportation Building 1891–1893,” 2010
  • 9th Annual Graduate Symposium in Art History, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, Paper Title: “Boy with Ball and Bat: Rethinking Reception,” 2009

Book Reviews

  • Picture Titles: How and Why Western Paintings Acquired Their Names. Art Inquiries 25, no. 1 (2016): 107–109, 2016

Catalog Entries

  • Contributions to Honoring the Point: The Gwynne McDevitt Sporting Dog Collection. National Sporting Library & Museum, 2024. Catalog entries:

    • “Thomas Carr, Trinity Foot Beagles, 1967,” 11.
    • “American School, Weathervane, 19th century,” 48.
    • “Reuben Ward Binks; Steady, c. 1935,” 51.
    • “Richard Fath, Setter on Point, 20th century,” 64.
    • “Marguerite Kirmse, Breaking into Society, 1926,” 67.
    • “Marguerite Kirmse, Birds Must Be There, 1936,” 68.
    • “Marguerite Kirmse, A Good Find, 1934,” 69.
    • “Marguerite Kirmse, On the Job, 1936,” 70.
    • “Maguerite Kirmse, English Setter Head Study, c. 1938,” 71.
    • “After Sir Edwin Landseer, engraved by Thomas Landseer, Ptarmigan Hill (Gordon Setters), 1873,” 72.
    • “S. Edwin Megargee, Steady, 1938,” 74.
    • “S. Edwin Megargee, Honors Even, 1943,” 75.
    • “Jules Moigniez, Setter on Point, 19th century,” 77.
    • “Percival Leonard Rosseau, Pointers: Jimmie De K and Peter’s Carrotte on Quail, 1925,” 92.
    • “Percival Leonard Rosseau, Setters on a Hilltop: Ned and Bob, 1925,” 93.
       
  • Contributions to With Observation and Imagination: Still Lifes, Genre Scenes, Portraits, and Landscapes from the Saunders Collection. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2021. Catalog entries:

    • “Sir Thomas Lawrence, Portrait of Miss Julia Peel, 1826–1828,” 160–163.
    • “John Wootton, Warren Hill, Newmarket, ca. 1715,” 120–121.
    • “Cornelis Jonson van Ceulen, Portrait of a Young Woman from the de Ligne Family, possibly Elizabeth de Ligne, 1616,” 38–39.
    • “Cornelis Jonson van Ceulen, Portrait of a Young Man from the de Ligne Family, possibly Daniel de Ligne, 1616,”40–41.