Women in Art

Painting pictures began in Western Europe sometime in the Middle Ages as a craft, like making weapons and armor, barrels, roofs, pottery, candles, and so on. The clients were mainly the Church and, secondarily, nobility with both the money and the taste to commission works of their own. Like other crafts, painting was controlled by local guilds, which consisted almost entirely of men and boys, masters and their apprentices. Guess who didn't get to paint?

Most women painters worked in private, but a very few were so gifted or fortunate or both that they enjoyed a measure of public recognition and financial success. Nevertheless, these pioneers even today are rarely accorded the same respect as their better known male contemporaries. The following examples, all from artists born before 1900, show clearly that they deserve wider recognition and greater respect.

Sofonisba Anguissola (1530-1625)
The Chess Game

Artemisia Gentilleschi (1597-1651)
Judith and Her Servant

Judith Leyster (1600-1660)
Young Boy with a Flute

Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun (1755-1842)
Self Portrait

Marie Bracquemond (1841-1916)
On the Terrace at Sevres

Berthe Morisot (1841-1895)
On the Veranda

Mary Casatt (1844-1926)
Woman with a Pearl Necklace in a Loge

Cecilia Beaux (May 1, 1855 – September 7, 1942)
Henry Sturgis Drinker

Euphemia Charlton Fortune (1885-1969)
California Sierra

Today, women outnumber men in every painting class and workshop. Men still dominate the professional scene, but there are thousands of gifted women artists, many who have enjoyed financially successful careers. The sidebar to the right includes links to the websites of a few of my favorites.