null

Famous Female Painters

kjs on 27th May 2022

Human history is replete with the names of great men such as Vinci, Van Gogh, Picasso, etc. But the names of women achievers who have made equally great or sometimes even greater contributions to various fields of visual history rarely take precedence to those of the male lot. There are even instances in history where women were discouraged from pursuing careers in arts and culture. But still, there are shining examples of incredible females who have successfully pursued careers in arts and have carved a niche of their own in the annals of history. Their resolute perseverance to follow the path of their liking has etched their names permanently in history and has made them the trailblazers in their own right. Here are some finest examples of such women who have broken the barriers of gender in their personal and public life.

Sofonisba Anguissola (1532-1625)

Her Early Life

Sofonisba Anguissola (1532-1625) was an Italian Renaissance painter. She was born in Cremona Diuchy of Milan in 1532. Sofonisba’s father was a nobleman from a wealthy family. In 1546, both Sofonisba and her sister Elena went to join the household of Bernardino Campi, a prominent local painter in Cremona. She continued studying art under Campi for three years until Campi moved to Milan. Sofonisba continued her studies with Bernardino Gatti and this helped her to appreciate the work of Correggio. Making use of the influence of her father, she received the encouragement of Michelangelo. Sofonisba also taught her three sisters how to paint while she was beginning to earn a livelihood.

Specialised in Portraits

Sofonisba specialized in portraits and her most attractive paintings are her self-portraits and those with other members of her family. She was one of the first women to receive formal artistic training. reached the international level of fame very quickly. Sofonisba’s artistic genius became so famous that the Spanish court invited her to tutor the queen, Elizabeth of Valois, and to serve as court painter for the Spanish King Phillip II. Anguissola stayed and worked there in Madrid for about 14 years. During these years, she painted royal portraits and painting lessons to the Queen and her daughters. Anguissola earned the confidence of the crown and became a well-known and well-paid artist. She was the only and probably the first successful female court painter. Although historians feel that she also painted religious subjects, most of them have disappeared without trace.

Her Constraints as a Female Painter

Anguissola enjoyed lot more encouragement and support in her career as a painter than an average women got in those days. However, the society did not allow her to transcend the constraints that are gender specific in those days. As a female painter, it was considered unacceptable to study anatomy or draw or view nudes. Hence she could not undertake multi-figure compositions required for large scale religious or history paintings. This necessitated her to experiment with a different styles of portraiture with self and or with other members of her family frequently under different moods and circumstances. Her most famous painting ‘The Chess Game’ that depicted her sisters Lucia, Minerva and Europa was one of these portraits.

Her Famous Painting ‘The Chess Game’

Anguissola painted her famous painting ‘The Chess Game’ when she was 23 years old. The painting depicted an intimate presentation of an everyday family scene, displaying elaborate formal clothing and very informal facial expressions. This painting is regarded as an informal portrait of a group engaging in lively conversation or some other day-to-day activities. Anguissola always preferred to present herself as an artist, separate from her role as an object to be painted. In this way, she rebelled against the general notion that women are merely objects to be painted and instruments to be played with by men. Anguissola’s another self-portrait showed her in assertive role, playing a musical instrument.

King Arranged Her Marriage

According to art historians, most of Sofonisba’s paintings were destroyed in a fire at court during the 17th century. In around 1571, the king helped her marry the Viceroy of Sicily, Fabrizio de Moncada when she was aged 38. She became widowed after 6 year-long years of married life, in 1579. Again in 1579, when she was aboard a ship bound for Cremona, she fell in love with the wealthy captain of the ship, Orazio Lomellino and married him in 1580. By the time she became famous as a painter, she was also wealthy enough to become a patron and supporter of young artistic talent.

Her Fame and Paintings Misappropriated

Sofonisba and her husband lived in Genoa during the period from 1584 till 1620. She came under the influence of the works of Luca Cambiaso during this period. Sofonisba painted innumerable portraits of many dignitaries and personnel from royalty. Experts feel that many of her paintings became attributed to many male painters, including some painters as famous as Titian and da Vinci. Near the end of her life, the young and famous painter Anthony van Dyck visited her, sought her advice and drew her sketch.

Her Final Days

Anguissola painted her final self-portrait in 1620. She painted at least twelve self-portraits at a time when drawing self-portraits was not a common time. Anguissola made a vivid representation of male and female models. She made use of intense colors and paid special attention to details of hands and faces. Toward the end of her life, Anguissola was beginning to lose sight. She moved back to Sicily and became a generous sponsor of art. She died in Palermo, aged 93, in 1625, at a very advanced age for that time.

Her Famous Paintings

Known mostly as a painter of portraits, Anquissola painted nearly twelve portraits of herself. Her self portrait ‘Self-portrait at the Easel’ became one of her well-acclaimed paintings. In another portrait ‘The Chess Game’ made in 1555, Anguissola painted herself in action while playing a game of chess in the company of three other characters. The other characters portrayed in the painting are those of her three sisters. Her painting ‘Self-portrait at the Easel’ made in 1556 showed herself at work at the easel while painting the characters of a mother and a child. The string of her self-portraits includes another portrait made by her in 1554 in which she portrays herself wearing black attire and holding a book in her left hand. The book reads an inscription saying ‘The virgin Sofonisba Anguissola ade this herself in 1554‘. Sir Anthony van Dyck painted Sofonisba Anguissola’s portrait in 1624 when she was very old.

Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653)

Her Early Life

Artemisia Lomi or Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653) was an Italian Baroque painter. She was born in Rome, Italy in 1593. Artemisia spent a sheltered childhood, meaning that she spent her time within the four walls of her home. Roman streets were not considered safe for her walk through alone. Artemisia was the eldest child with three younger brothers. At the age of twelve, she became responsible for caring for her brothers when her mother died during childbirth. Artemisia spent her time as an apprentice in her father’s studio. Her father’s paintings became her primary source of inspiration in her early years. She started her career from her father’s workshop where she was mixing paints. Her father noticed that she had exceptional artistic talent in her and he kept supporting her right from her childhood.

No Academic Education

Artemisia received no academic education until her twenties when finally had the opportunity to read and write. As a child, she enjoyed the privilege of drawing and painting and her talent revealed itself very early in er life. Orazio, her mentor, wrote to one of his patrons saying that Artemisia had become so skilled in three years that she had no peers. She was producing a professional quality of paintings by the age of fifteen. Gentileschi was famous enough to rank among some of the most accomplished seventeenth-century artists. Her reputation started gaining ground recently after the discovery of signature in many of her artful and emotionally charged works. These paintings had earlier been attributed to many male contemporary painters around her.

‘Judith Slaying Holofernes‘, Artists’ Favourite Subject

The story of Susanna and the Elders narrated in the Book of Daniel was a popular subject for artists in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. According to the story of Susanna and the Elders, Susanna was a beautiful young women. She was bathing in her garden and two older men spy on her and demand that she submit to rape. This subject became a favourite subject for many artists to paint this theme several times in different versions. Gentileschi painted ‘Susanna Slaying Holofernes‘ in 1610 when she was barely seventeen years old.

‘Susanna and the Elders’

Artemisia Gentileschi’s famous painting ‘Susanna and the Elders‘ was one prominent example of misattribution of her painting to somebody else. The painting is a depiction of two elderly men spying on the young girl Susanna as she bathes. Many old masters like Van Dyck, Rembrandt, Rubens and others had shown keen interest in this painting. All these men painted it varying degrees of interest towards the woman in the painting. None of them succeeded in approaching the topic with as much empathy as Gentileschi did.

Gentileschi’s Version of Susanna

In the version of Gentileschi, two men emerge from behind the balustrade, interrupting Susanna’s routines. The picture shows Susanna raising her hand in an ineffectual attempt at self defense. Susanna also does not want the men to identify her or notice her anguish. The painting mirrors the state of Gentileschi’s mind when she did the painting in her teens.

‘David and Goliath’

The painting ‘David and Goliath’ remained attributed to somebody else until the year 2020. The painting was initially attributed to Giovanni Francesco Guerrieri, a student of Artemisia’s father. After a sort of ‘investigative’ work done by a art historian and a restorer, the painting finally came to be identified with Artemisia in 2020. The painter, Artemisia’s, name painted along the blade of David’s sword solved the puzzle of misconceived identity of the painter in favour of Artemisia.

‘Madonna and Child’

In Roman times, artists painted Virgin alone without the child around. Thereafter, Virgin or Mary came to be portrayed along with the ‘Child’ as a gesture of prayer or reverence to God. Artemisia completed her painting ‘Madonna and Child’ in 1613 when she was around 20 years old. In this painting, Madonna is a representation of Mary, either with or without her child Jesus. This painting has become iconic for bother Catholic and orthodox churches. The word ‘ma donna’ meant ‘my lady’.

‘Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes”

Gentileschi completed her another famous painting ‘Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes” in 1620s. The painting presents the painter’s masterly execution of the technique using light and colour. The characters in this painting and the mid-action of these characters are illuminated by use of a lamplight in a dynamic fashion. In 1611, the year after she painted “Susanna and the Elders”, an artist Agostino Tasso raped her. The savage themes of her paintings have been interpreted as expressions of wrathful catharsis. Given the prevalence of sedusal violence against woken, her fascination with these subjects in her paintings is understandable, according to art experts.

Celebrated During Her Lifetime, forgotten later

Gentileschi was one of the first women artists to have achieved success in her career as a painter. Art lovers and fellow artists all over the world celebrated her achievement during her lifetime. Her reputation suffered greatly after her death. The reasons attributed to the decline in her popularity were, firstly, her naturalistic mode of painting that went out of fashion in favour of classical approach. Secondly, her father, Orazio Gentileschi was a well regarded painter and Artemisia’s name appeared only after his name. When some of the experts suggest that they could not name a single artist who followed Artemisia, it points to the fact that no male artist would have acknowledged being her disciple.

Historian Roberto Longhi’s Critical Assessment

Due to these reasons, among others, Artemisia received little critical attention until the early twentieth century. Credit goes to Roberto Longhi, the Italian Art Historian, who made a realistic assessment of the true personality of Gentilischi. He called her “the only woman in Italy who ever understood what painting was, both colors, impasto, and other essentials”. Later, in a landmark survey, ‘Women Artists: 1550-1950’ curated by some famous historians, half a dozen of Gentileshi’s works became a part. He famous work ‘Susanna and the Elders’ was one of them. Thereafter, Gentileschi’s artworks became part of major exhibitions either with or without the works of her well-known father.

Judith Leyster (1609-1660)

Her Early Life

Judith Leyster (1609-1660) was a Dutch painter of genre scenes, ‘still lifes’ and portraits. She was one of the most recognised female figures and belonged to the Dutch Golden Age of art. Judith was born in Haarlem, the Netherlands in July 1609. She was the eighth of the nine siblings of her parents. Her father was a brewer and her mother was a weaver. Judith took up painting as a career to support the family after her father’s bankruptcy.

She Joins Haarlem’s Guild

Historians feel that Judith probably learned to paint from Frans Pietersz de Grebber, who had a workshop in Haarlem in the 1620s. She was extremely successful during her lifetime as a painter. Experts feel that there are similarities between her paintings and those of Frans Hals. In 1633, Judith applied to join Haarlem’s Guild of St. Luke’s, an organisation for beginners. She succeeded in getting admission into the Guild and thereafter, she belonged to the artist’s union, the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke. She was one of the first women to do so.

Courageous enough to Sue Frans Hals

She set up her own studio in that same year and took on three pupils. When one of her students left her studio and joined Frans Hals, she had the courage to stand up to him and sue that well-established painter in the Court of Law. This was the proof of her assertiveness and bravery. An art historian, James A Welu wrote that though it was inappropriate to judge someone’s personality on the basis of financial transactions, Leyster, from all accounts, appears to have been a confident individual.

Busy Period Short-Lived

Historians feel that during the years between 1629 and 1635, Leyster was busy and produced much of her paintings. She followed the artistic styles of some of the famous painters of her time such as Frans Hals and his brother Dirfh and Jan Steen. Her busy period came to an end in about 1630. In June 1636, Leyster married the painter Jan Miese Molenaer in Haarlem. Molenaer was already a prolific artist and also a member of the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke. The couple moved to Amsterdam in that same year where they lived until 1648. Here in Amsterdam, their career flourished as they knew several clients and art dealers. The couple had four children, two daughters and two sons. out of whom only two survived into adulthood.

Out of Limelight for Long

After fading into obscurity for a long time, Judith Leyster resurfaced again in the art world in the late 19th century. Out of her 35 surviving paintings, most were attributed either to Frans Hals or to Leyster’s husband, Jan Miense Molenaer. The remaining works that were not given the names of either of them remained unattributed. Leyster’s name remained out of the limelight of the art world for the better of nearly 200 years. It was as though Lester never existed.

‘Honest Confusion’ and ‘Financial Gains’ Denying Her Ownership

Besides being contemporaries and colleagues, Leyster and Frans Hals had a teacher-student relationship. The historians believe that these circumstances left scope for the contents of their works being similar in technique. This was partly the reason why misattribution went on for a long time. Experts say that initially, it was the honest confusion of historians that disabled judgement of ownership between the two similarly trained artists. However, during the course of time there evolved a malicious intent and possible fraud to decide the ownership of the paintings in the later years. The art dealers were clinging to their financial gains and their intent not to ruin the illusion. However, Leyster’s distinctive signature and her characteristic style in using light and shade in her paintings weighed in deciding the ownership in her favour much later.

‘Happy Couple’, a Decider

A highly engrossing story played out in discovering the real Judith Leyster. It was her famous painting ‘The Happy Couple’ that decided the case of misplaced attribution of her painting by others. The story begins with two English art dealers who bought the painting ‘Happy Couple’ and then sold it to a customer. The customer noticed that the signature on the painting did not belong to Frans Hals and the case became a legal battle. A famous Dutch historian, Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, testified in court as a witness and confirmed that the signature did not belong to Frans Hals but to the female Dutch Painter named Judith Leyster. The dealers blamed each other for misattribution.

Prominence Post Investigation

De Groot’s further discovery helped track down some more Leyster’s works bearing her characteristic signature. Her name gained prominence thereafter and became part of mainstream art history. Many of the major exhibitions started dedicating exhibitions to her paintings. Many art historians still believe that they have not seen the last of Leyster as she did not stop painting after her marriage. There are still possibilities that many of her paintings might have been attributed to her husband. Judith was famous and respected by her contemporaries. She was eventually forgotten after her death. All her paintings became attributed to either Frans Hals or her husband until she was rediscovered in 1893.

‘David with the Head of Goliath’ (1633)

‘David with the Head of Goliath’ was Judith’s one famous historical painting.

Caroline Louisa Daly

Caroline Louisa Daly (1832-1893) was a 19th-century Canadian landscape painter. She had been hiding from public glare for more than 50 years and so did her artistic talent. As a result, someone else took credit for her paintings and the gallery that held the collection of her paintings wrongfully attributed them to somebody else for decades. Caroline’s great-grandson, Richard Jenkins took the initiative and visited the Confederation Center Art Gallery in Prince Edward Island, Canada. He found out that the paintings displayed in the Gallery reminded him of the canvasses of his great-grandmother.

Claim For Ownership

Richard Jenkins informed the Gallery that the paintings attributed by them to a few painters belonged to a different person. Consequently, the museum staff started delving into the historical records and launched a 2-year long investigation to get to the truth. The revelation made in the investigation surprised them completely. The investigation established that the claims of the painters to whom the paintings were attributed were insubstantial. Further, one of the two painters who claimed credit for the paintings was not even a painter. In this way, the ownership of the real painter of these artworks became clear. Caroline’s family gave some of her works to the Gallery. The investigation is also a pointer to the larger truth that there were efforts to downplay the accomplishments of women.

Museum Makes Amends

Caroline Louisa Daly learnt painting by herself and she never exhibited her paintings during her lifetime. The members of her family and her friends were aware of her keen eye for details and talent for design and painting skills. The same Museums that was responsible for the misattribution made amends thereafter. It launched a monographic exhibition dedicated to the artist titled ‘introducing Caroline Louisa Daly’. The exhibition included six of Caroline’s paintings that the Gallery already owned and another six paintings that her family donated to the Museum.

‘A Little Feminist History’

Experts believe that Caroline’s paintings and artworks act as an index of what Prince Edward Island looked like 150 years ago. The misattribution happened on account of the poor record-keeping. The discovery is not so small a thing that we can just take things for granted because this is a case of a victory of a ‘little feminist victory’. Experts also feel that women are over-represented in art schools and underrepresented in exhibition spaces. Historically, cultural institutions underrate women’s art and the number of such cases, according to them, is a cause for concern.

Her Well-known Paintings

Some of Caroline’s well-known paintings include ‘Government House in Winter With Sleigh’ (1854-59), ‘A Whale Stranded in Treadle Harbor’ (1858),

Frida Kahlo or Frida Kahlo de Rivera

Her Early Life

Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderon, or Frida Kahlo de Rivera, famously known as Frida Kahlo, (1907-1954) was a well-known Mexican painter. She is known for numerous portraits, self-portraits and landscape paintings. She was born to a German father of Hungarian descent and a Mexican mother of Spanish and Native American descent. As a child, she suffered a bout of polio that left her with a life-long limp. Her father was a professional photographer and owned a studio. Frida visited his studio frequently and assisted him in his job and this helped her to acquire a sharp eye for photographic details.

Associated with Communism

Kahlo’s work is regarded as deeply personal and she is admired as a feminist icon. Being a bisexual, she did not conform to traditional gender roles. Kahlo is famous for painting self-portraits, intimate subject matter and subjects related to Mexican culture and colonialism. Kahlo was politically active and was a member of the Cachuchas, an organization associated with Marxism. She joined the Young Communist League in the 1920s. She attended communist rallies and secret meetings.

Self-Taught During Recuperation

Frida Kahlo’s portraits deal with, besides others, themes such as identity, the human body and death. She is also famous for her tumultuous relationship with muralist Diego Rivera. As Frida was interested in studying science, she entered National Preparatory School in 1922. She met Rivera in the school where he was working on a mural for the school’s auditorium. Diego Rivera was also a communist. However, the two left the communist party because of Rivera’s strained relationship with the party and eventual expulsion from the party. Unfortunately, Kahlo met with a serious bus accident in 1925 which required her to undergo more than 30 medical operations during her lifetime. Frida took to studying the art of the old masters and taught herself to paint when she was recovering from the injury.

Her First Self-Portrait

‘Self-Portrait Wearing a Velvet Dress‘ (1926) was one of her early paintings depicting herself in the portrait. In this painting, Kahlo painted herself in a regal waist-length self-portrait against a dark background with rolling stylized waves. This painting also indicated her interest in realism. After her convalescence, Kahlo joined the Mexican Communist Party where she met Rivera once again. There, she showed Rivera some of her work and he encouraged her to follow her talent. Soon afterwards, she married Rivera in 1929 and changed her personal and painting style.

Travel to the US

Frida’s other painting ‘Frida and Diego Rivera‘ (1931), which she painted soon after her marriage to Rivera, she has shown herself in her new customer attire. She has attempted to show herself as a customary Mexican wife the way, presumably, Diego Rivera wanted her to be. Kahlo painted this work while she was travelling to the United States in 1910. During the period of her stay in the US from 1930 to 1933, Rivera was working on the commissions for murals that he had received from several cities.

Her Harrowing Works

She had to endure several miscarriages during this period and underwent the agony of the death of her mother. She also painted some of her most harrowing works such as ‘Henry Ford Hospital‘, (1932) and ‘My Birth’, (1932). In her painting ‘Henry Ford Hospital‘, she showed herself hemorrhaging on a hospital bed amid a barren landscape. In the other painting, ‘My birth‘, she painted a ‘taboo’ scene of a shrouded woman giving birth.

Her Successful Exhibition

Kahlo and her husband returned to Mexico in 1933 and lived in a newly constructed house which later became a meeting spot for artists and political activists. Andre Breton, a leading Surrealist, became her champion and he also wrote the introduction to the brochure for her first solo exhibition. He described her as a self-taught Surrealist. The exhibition was held at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York in 1938 and it proved a success. The following year, she travelled to Paris where she met more Surrealists, including Marcel Duchamp, the only member whom she respected. The Louvre also acquired one of Kahlo’s works, namely, ‘The Frame’ (1938). With this, Kahlo became the first 20th century Mexican artist to be included in the museum’s collection.

Divorce and Painting ‘The Two Fridas’

The couple divorced in 1939 following numerous extra-marital affairs involving both Frida and Rivera. Kahlo painted some of her famous works, including ‘The Two Fridas’ during that period. It is a large canvas measuring 1.74×1.73 metres showing twin figures holding hands and each figure representing an opposing side of Kahlo. The figure to the left is dressed in a European style wedding dress which her husband reportedly did not appreciate. The other figure on the right in the traditional Tehuana attire is, reportedly, the one Rivera loved the best. The portrait was the precise anatomical description of her own self.

Ill-health and the painting ‘Self-portrait with Portrait of Dr.Farill’

The couple mended their ways and moved together into her childhood home, La Casa Azul (The Blue House) in Coyocan. In 1943, Kahlo received an appointment as professor of painting at La Esmeralda, the Education Ministry’s School of Fine Arts. As her health began to decline further, she turned to alcohol and drugs for relief. However, Kahlo remained productive during the 1940s and painted numerous self-portraits. These portraits show her in different hairstyles and clothing. She always showed her typical impassive and steadfast gaze. During the final days of her life, she had to take assistance for walking. In her painting ‘Self-portrait with Portrait of Dr. Farill’ (1951), she appears seated in a wheelchair. She attended her first solo exhibition in Mexico in 1953 lying on the bed.

Life of Unending Pain

Kahlo was no stranger to pain and suffering. From her age at six, she contracted polio that left her debilitated till her last breath. The bus accident damaged several organs in the body, mainly her pelvis, and resulted in multiple surgical operations that restricted her movement in the later years. Kahlo lived a life of constant pain and suffering. Because of these surgical operations, Kahlo could not bear children. In addition to that, she had to have her leg amputated because of gangrene in the last stage of her life. Kahlo died in La Casa Azul a year later in 1954. After her death, Rivera redesigned her house La Casa Azul as a museum dedicated to Kahlo’s life. The museum opened to the public in 1958. Kahlo’s posthumous reputation of Kahlo grew steadily and she became more popular than she was when alive, which some critics called ‘Fridamania’ by the 21st century.

Matilda Browne

Matilda Browne (1869-1947) was an American painter and sculptor of animals, flowers and landscapes. She was born in Newark, New Jersey. She showed signs of a promising artistic talent early in her life. Luckily, Thomas Moran, a Hudson River School painter was her neighbor and she grew up watching his works. Matilda’s parents supported her in developing her budding talent. She later studied with many teachers, including Thomas Moran, such as Eliza Pratt Greatorex and Tonaist Charles Melville Dewey. Animal painter Carleton Wiggins and Julian Duper were other teachers of Matilda Browne.

European Study Tour

Matilda’s mother took her to Europe on a study tour from 1888 to 1892 when she was still very young and this tour helped Matilda a lot in shaping her talent. She studied in Paris which had become the centre of the art world by then. As a result, Matilda participated in her first-ever major exhibition at the National Academy of Design when she was just 12 years of age. Matilda also spent time studying in Holland which was famously known as a hotbed of animal and floral paintings. She visited Puerto Rico in 1912 found vibrant images of the local scenery highly appetizing for a painter.

Animal Paintings, her favourite subject

Matilda’s favourite subject for painting was animals, especially cows and other livestock. Ber numerous animal paintings demonstrate her sympathy for and understanding of the animals. Browne was often compared to better-known French animal painter Rosa Bonheur. Although Browne had spent time in France, it is doubtful if the two ever meant during their lifetime. Like Bonheur, Browne got livestock models from Parisian animal markets. Matilda’s painting ‘At the Watering Hole’ (1905) is one of the finest examples of her specialty in this subject.

Floral paintings, her other speciality

A colourful garden landscape full of flowers was another favourite subject of Matilda. Experts say that Matilda’s style of painting is best described as Impressionism although her pastoral animal scenes recall French Barbizon animal sculptures. The garden scenes filled with abundant colourful flowers and fluffy greenery that span the Connecticut countryside were the subjects that were appealing to her the most. Browne took great pleasure in populating her garden paintings with human figures, especially those of her friends or their young kids. Besides human figures, charming and stylish homes also fill out her paintings.

‘Cinnias and Gladiolas’

Floral still life paintings were another subject of Matilda’s speciality. The styles of brushwork employed by her while painting floral subjects were different from the ones she used in her landscape paintings. Matilda gave ultimate attention to every minute detail of each of the flowers in the floral presentations. Her work ‘Zinnias and Gladiolas’ (1926) is the finest example of her speciality in this field of art. Browne’s other great work ‘Peonies’ is another excellent example of the artist’s focused attention to the multitude of pink-and-white flowers that span the green landscape. The human figure of a lady appears engrossed in appreciating the verdant beauty of the flowers.

Griswold’s Boarding House

Matilda Browne began being counted as one of the young and successful artists. The kind of respect that she commanded among the artists was unimaginable for a female artist at that time. In her adulthood, Matilda moved to Connecticut, where she painted in the Cos Cob and Old Lyme art colonies. At Old Lyme, she was the only female artist accepted into the inner circle living and working at Florence Griswold’s boarding house. The group that was otherwise typically unfriendly to female artists respected Browne. She even had the honour of painting ‘two peaceful cows in a bucolic landscape’ on the door in Miss Florence’s house. Matilds’s great painting skill made the other artists take notice of her.

Her Marriage and Oblivion

As a successful artist, Matilde Browne won numerous awards in her lifetime. These awards include a medal at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. She exhibited in many important shows including the Paris Salon. She married Frederick Van Wyck in 1918. Matilda did all the illustrations for the book called Recollection of an Old New Yorker written by her husband Frederic Van Wyck in 1932. She was one famous American female painter who was celebrated during her lifetime but forgotten quickly afterwards. Sadly, this does not normally happen so frequently in the case of male painters as in the case of female painters and Matilda Brown is a shining example.

Gender discrimination

It is great news that art history celebrated other well-known female Impressionist artists like Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot and a very few others. It is also quite equally, or probably more, disappointing to know that very few people know about the equally, or even more, well-known artists like Matilda Browne. Experts feel that the reason for Matilda fading into obscurity might be because she was a ‘double minority, one as gender and another as her nationality. It is noticeable that books about female impressionists omit her, presumably, because, firstly, she was American and, secondly, the books on American Impressionists almost always focus on male artists.

Matilda’s Collections

Most of Matilda Browne’s paintings are in private collections. The Florence Griswold Museum is the best place to look for her paintings. Her Paintings: Matilda Browne’s well-known paintings include ‘Peonies‘ (1907), ‘In the Garden’ (1915), ‘At the Watering Hole’, (1905), ‘In Voorhee’s Garden’ (1914), ‘Saltbox by Moonlight’, ‘Miss Katharine Ludington’s Garden, Lyme’ (1914), ‘Miss Florence’s’, (which are all in Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, Connecticut), ‘Floral Still Life’, ‘Four Barnyard Cowsoil’, ‘Little Holstein Bull’, ‘Coastal Landscape’, ‘Zinnias’, etc.

Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun (1755-1842)

Marie-Lousie-Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun also known as Lebrun was born in the year 1755 in Paris, France. She was one of the most successful women artists of her time. She is known for portraits of women. She always portrayed the subjects of her paintings, mostly women, to make them look gracefully beautiful by giving a touch of flattery. She made use of loose brushwork and bright colors.

Early life and patronage

At a young age, she created about 66 portraits and nearly 200 landscapes. This helped her to grow in popularity enough to be elected to the art academies in 10 cities. Because of her phenomenal success, she was attracted to a wealthy dealer in Paris, Jean Baptists Pierre Le Brun, whom she married in 1776. Julie Le Brun, her daughter born out of this wedlock, became the new subject of her passion for painting.

She earned appreciation from people from all walks of life like actors, painters, and writers, and patronage from aristocrats and the Royal Family. Noticing her fame as a painter, the office of the Royal Family of France sent for her for painting the portraits of Queen Marie Antoinette as the Royal Family was intending to extol the queen’s motherhood.

She has mentioned her brother only a couple of times in her memoir, albeit with fondness. He grew up to be a well-liked and admired young man of the French society. He was an actor and poet. He married a lady from an illustrious family and had one child. This niece of Marie was very dear to her. (?)

Marie Antoinette

Le Brun painted nearly 30 portraits of the queen before the queen met her tragic end. Her efforts earned her the rank of ‘the painter to the king’. At the time when she was displaying her brilliance at transforming the beauty of the queen into the painting canvas and immortalizing her life, the revolutionaries were preparing for taking the royal family to the guillotine.

Early Fascination for Painting

Her father was a well-to-do citizen of Paris who himself indulged in painting. He painted many pastels, some of which were oil paintings. Lebrun wrote of many instances during her childhood with her father where he would be so engrossed in thinking and brooding about art that he would behave absentmindedly. She was deeply saddened by his death due to complications post-surgery. She felt his loss deeply as she found him to be her first source of encouragement for her ongoing interest in art. After her father’s death, Lebrun and her family had fallen on hard times after her father’s untimely demise. Hence, Lebrun’s mother had to marry a rich merchant who was unlike her father in many ways. Due to differences in attitudes between her father-in-law and her father, Lebrun did not take too much after him and she began to despise her time spent in her father-in-law’s house.

A Keen and Studious Learner

Patronage for Lebrun’s talent began at an early age where members of the elite society of France and also other countries in Europe began paying her for her portraits. This helped her to lead a more independent life financially. Lebrun began to be counted as one of the sought-after artists of the pre-revolution era of France. She espoused help and guidance from many well-known painters of that time including Vernet. Lebrun visited museums and art shows in places such as the Louvre, Luxemburg Palace, and other places where art was put up for admiration by the general public. Beautiful artworks of Rembrandt, Raphael, Vandyck were put up in these museums and the young artist was ever so keen to admire and learn from the styles of these famous masters.

She mentions a time when she was encouraged by the then queen consort of the king of France to continue walking in the royal gardens. these passages give us a glimpse of the circle of people she moved within those times. She later on, in 1779, painted a portrait of the queen. She appears to be frustrated by the fact that she was unable to get the likeness of her complexion to her liking. She remembers the beauty of Marie Antoinette’s face; with her pale face that exuded a brilliance that was difficult to capture with the colors that she had at the time.

Lebrun made several paintings of the queen, many of which were given to friends, foreign dignitaries, and ambassadors. She recalls how her model, the Queen, was always calm with her and how the king always spoke to her with graciousness. Once during her second pregnancy, Lebrun was delayed in her arrival for an appointment for a painting session with the queen. But the queen not only was gracious to her but also was considerate of her condition. Marie appeared to be especially touched by this act of kindness from the queen.

Marriage and Financial Constraints

Soon thereafter, Lebrun married M. Le Brun. Although she found him pleasing and well-mannered, she was soon too distressed to learn that he was involved in bad habits such as gambling and keeping company with women of ill repute. Such was the extent of these problems that very soon he not only lost all his fortune but also that of hers, too, which she had accumulated through many years of hard work of painting portraits. Faced with severe financial constraints, Lebrun was forced to take up teaching painting to students in order to make ends meet.

Her marriage was one of the few regrets she talks about with a heavy heart in her memoir. She remembers how many of her friends had warned her of the problems with M. Le Brun’s character and how she later felt deeply saddened upon recollecting these warnings. This was because she thought that her marriage to M. Le Brun was due to a sad twist of fate. But Lebrun was under instructions to hide this fact from the rest of the world as her husband had to first break away from a highly unfavourable business arrangement that existed between him and another trader.

Loss of Near and Dear ones to the Revolution

Lebrun was a hard worker and used to spend many hours in her workshop as a paintress and in the guidance of her students as a teacher. Many of her students grew to be famous artists due to her guidance. Despite her fame as a painter and the acquaintance that she had earned among the royalty and diplomatic circles, Lebrun had to lose many of her friends and acquaintances to the revolution. She reminisces disdainfully about the sorrowful loss of her near and dear ones and the changed atmosphere of Paris after the revolution.

Brutal face of the Revolution

Mary LeBron remembers her time with the elite of the French society with fondness. In her memoir, she recollected her visits to various palaces and the houses of the rich dignitaries of that period of time. She narrated stories of the period before the revolution when she noticed rich country folks helping out the countrymen who had lost their crops.

There was a specific mention of one instance when some rich countrymen doling out large sums to four farmers who had lost their crops that year. They embraced the poor farmers and subsequently paid out large sums of money to them to cover their losses. She regrettably expresses her sadness while remembering later on how one of that very country gentleman was later killed by the revolutionaries when the revolution began.

Julie Le Brun

She became pregnant two years after marriage. She immediately fell in love with her daughter and cherished every moment she spent with her. A mother’s love for her child can be clearly seen in many of her paintings of her daughter. She insists that one of her patrons, Duchesse de Mazarin, had eyes very much like those of Julie, her daughter. Her memoir mentions her at great length due to the duchess’s resemblance to her daughter.

She saw her daughter as an extension of herself and showered her love for the child by painting the various levels of her childhood in a passionate manner. ‘Julie Le Brun’ is one such wonderful piece of painting that accentuated her artistic excellence in using the brush, the colour, and her imagination to give ultimate effect to the portraits. Julie Le Brun Looking in a mirror is one such painting. The double image plays on reality versus illusion and shows even more so how talented artist Le Brun really was. The painting is famous for its impossible ‘perspective’.

In this portrait depicting her daughter, whom she lovingly called ‘brunette’, Vigee Le Brun has displayed her dramatic artistic skill by portraying both the profile of the subject and the full face in one canvas. The experts are of the opinion that the composition was short of the laws of perspective. The depiction of the face as well as the profile of her daughter in one picture by placing the mirror at an angle away from the object looking into it was special and exciting. This painting proved to be one of the important highlights of her artistic journey. Apart from this painting, she created many more portraits of herself with her daughter.

She was indeed the darling of the rich and famous of France during her time as ‘the portrait artist’ of the French society. She recalls having had the good fortune of staying in and visiting various palaces and houses of the famous merchants, ambassadors and relatives of the royal family.

Escape From Paris

Lebrun loved her time in the village. She remembers her experiences in the mansions of the rich country folk. Sometimes she also mentions the idiosyncrasies of certain country gentlemen while remembering their courtesy and kindness towards her during her stay with them. Lebrun remembers her misery and suffering when the revolution started and she was forced to quit Paris and move away from France to other neighboring countries as the revolution picked up the pace. Lebrun had to disguise herself and into the large crowds during this period while finding her way out of France. In certain instances, she was recognized by the soldiers of the revolution. However, Lebrun managed to escape due to the show of kindness by some strangers that helped her family to stay alive and intact. She remembers these kind people and credits them with her escape.

Revolution brewing…

She remembers the time before, during, and after the revolution started in the month of May 1789. She mentions how during one of her visits to the country, her chariot ride was interrupted by the country folk waving their fists at them and staring at them angrily. This interesting story helps the reader to visualise the change in attitudes of the poorer people of France towards the elites before the revolution started. The upheaval and change in loyalties of many servants during the gate revolution are also mentioned.

After the dust settled

Marie Le Brun recounts many sad and depressing accounts of her friends and their execution at the guillotine. After the revolution, she had lost many of her friends who were either executed during the revolution or had fled to other parts of Europe after the revolution ended. Many never returned to their homeland. Lebrun herself was attacked several times. There were attempts of sulfur being thrown at her through the vents of her house. On some other occasions, she was chased by criminals during her travels. She was also threatened with murder and that was one of the reasons for her fleeing Paris.

From Lebrun’s recollections, one gets to have an insight into the different perspectives of the revolution. The peoples’ revolution is often cited as a righteous uprising that left the monarchy of France in disarray and decline. From Marie Vigee’s accounts, one gets a view from the top!

Her Painting ‘Marie-Antoinette with the Rose’

In May 1783, Le Brun registered at the Academie Royale De Peinture et de Sculpture. She became the court painter of Queen Marie Antoinette of France and she painted ‘Marie Antoinette with a Rose‘ in that year. Marie Antoinette commissioned her to submit a picture of herself for the forthcoming Salon in that year. The painting depicted the queen in a chemise. But the visitors to the Salon ware were taken aback as they treated the dress as inappropriate to show the queen in that dress and the image was withdrawn. Thereafter, Le Brun produced five more versions with variations in costumes and styles.

‘Marie-Antoinette’ – Another Great Painting by William Hamilton

‘Marie-Antoinette Being Taken To Her Execution‘ is another famous painting by famous painter William Hamilton. This painting shows the renowned widow in a drab jail cell awaiting her final daybreak in October 1793. The queen had long been separated from her husband who was killed by the Revolutionaries. She had suffered from a trail of harrowing trials with allegations ranging from incest to treason. Her execution was the final defining moment of the French revolution. William Hamilton, the famous painter, painted the heart-rending picture of the queen consort of France and Navarre being led away from the prison to her tragic end.

Surviving the Post-revolution France

Lebrun tried to flee the revolution and succeeded in her efforts, finally. She was joined by many embattled countrymen in her fight and flight. Many times, she was recognized by her betrayers. She was however able to survive the dangers of post-revolution France. She took to drawing to be able to look on the brighter side of her life, which seemed to be full of unending upheavals. Instead of feeling a sense of despair and fighting an impulse to flee her home, she always looked forward to visiting cities, such as Rome, Naples, Berlin, Vienna, Petersburg.

Portrait Painter For The Nobility

Le Brun was famously known as a portrait painter for the nobility and the rich before the revolution of France. Even after the revolution she found many patrons and was able to sustain her lifestyle using the income derived from her art. Finally, she succeeded in finding her name etched indelibly in the pages of history as one of the finest examples of female Paintresses and the Paintress for the Nobility and the Royalty of France.

Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899)

Her Early Life

Bonheur was a French painter of animals and sculptor known for accuracy and attention to graphic details of her paintings featuring animals. Rosa Bonheur was born in Bordeaux, France, in a family having four highly talented siblings. She was the eldest of the four of them, two boys and two girls. The family moved from rural Bordeaux to Paris in 1829 when Rosa was only six years old. Rosa was enjoying sketching from her childhood days. Rosa enjoyed sketching as soon as she could hold a pencil, but struggled with reading and writing.

Death of Her Ingenious Mother

Noticing her natural inclination toward sketching and painting, her mother, who was a music teacher herself, was employing highly ingenious methods of teaching to bring out the best in her daughter and nurture her potential talent. Rosa’s intelligent mother asked her to draw an animal for each letter of the alphabet. From the age of 13, Rosa devoted herself alone to painting and drawing. When Bonheur was only ten, cholera epidemic swept through France. Though the family did its best to remain indoors, Rosa’s mother Sophie fell ill and died at the age of 36. After her mother’s death, her father sent her to a boarding school. The boarding school refused to allow Rosa’s prolonged stay there as she was harboring a ‘tomboy manners’. This was as per Rosa’s own admission.

Passion for Animal Art

From 1839 onwards, Rosa devoted herself to the study of animals and this subject of her painting became her specialty. She exhibited at the Paris Salon. In 1848 Rosa received a gold medal for her painting ‘Oxen and animals, breed of Cantal’. She was resolutely non-conformist. In 1852, she obtained authorization from the police headquarters to wear trousers to go to the slaughterhouses. She is the first artist in the history of painting who saw the art market speculate on her works. One famous art critique said of her the ‘she makes art seriously and we can treat her like a man. Until 1897, women were not admitted to the School of Fine Arts. She also went to Louvre to copy the masters.

Father’s Whole-hearted Support

Probably realizing that Bordeaux was too small a place to offer scope for developing the artistic and sculptural potentialities of their children, the family moved to Paris and she was admitted to a boarding school. But her carefree and, as she herself is reported to have confessed, tomboy manners in schools made her face the disgrace of refusal for admission into a boarding school. However, realizing the full extent of her potential, her father encouraged her to take up painting landscapes, animals, and birds as her full-time profession. He took her to those places in and around Paris that are close to fields and animal habitats so that she could develop her talent for realistic drawing and painting.

‘The Horse Fair’

Rosa Bonheur made this painting ‘The Horse Fair’ in 1852. She first exhibited this painting at the Paris Salonin 1853. She added some finishing touches to the painting in 1855. The painting is a depiction of a fair where horses are bought and sold. These are also events where women were generally not permitted to attend at that period of time. The painting shows the horse market held in Paris on the tree-lined Boulevard de I’Hospital near the asylum of Salpetriere, which is visible in the painting.

Foray into Male-dominated Subjects

Her obsessional attachment to painting did not deter her from visiting primarily male-dominated places like horse fairs and slaughterhouses where the presence of female folks was rare. Her visits to these uncommon places were thought of as sources for gaining a deeper understanding of animal emotion and behavior. ‘A Limier Briquet Hound’ is one of Bonheur’s numerous animal portraits depicting hunting dogs and pets.

Increase in Her Popularity

After her initial debut with two paintings at the Paris Salon in 1841, she exhibited her paintings every year. By the year 1843, Bonheur was selling her paintings regularly. She exhibited her paintings in Salon every year until 1855. In this way, not only her popularity increase but she also earned more money. With the inflow of sufficient income, she could travel to other destinations for studying as well as painting more and more animals.

Her Well-known Paintings

Bonheur tasted commercial success in painting at a time when very few women had made any mark in this field. She always believed that it was her parents, especially her father, whose firm belief in her artistic talent prodded her to treat painting as a profession. He provide her all the necessary training in that field. ‘Plowing in the Nivernais’, Horse Fair’, Spanish Muleteers Crossing the Pyrenees’, ‘Sheep by the Sea’, ‘Weaning the Calves’, ‘The Lion at Home’, ‘Portrait of William F. Cody’s, ‘Our English Coasts (Strayed Sheep), ‘The Pyrenees’, ‘Highland Raid‘, are some of her famous paintings depicting animals.

Her Famous Painting, ‘A Limier Briquet Hound’

In her painting, ‘A Limier Briquet Hound‘, Bonheur depicted a real-life specimen of a dog owned by a person known to her. Her ability to pay undivided attention to paint the different parts of the animal’s physical structure with utmost care has made the portrait famous. The sinewy muscular legs, its thoroughbred body, its focussed eyes, and the alertness in its gait have been painted so painstakingly that it gives an impression as though the animal is sizing up its prey before pouncing on it.

Her Famous Painting ‘Nivernais Plowing’

This famous painting depicts cattle ploughing the farm land. Ploughing consists of the first stage in the farming activities. Peasants sue this method to open the ground in order to aerate it during the winter. In this animal painting, oxen painted in different colors are the subjects and the main characters. The farmers or the herdsmen doing the ploughing activities are depicted so small and faceless that they appear quite insignificant in this painting. It is also an attempt to recognize the agricultural traditions and the landscape of the province, the Nivernais.

Berthe Morisot (1841-1895)

Early Life

Berthe Marie Paulin Morisot, also known as Berthe Morisot (1841-1895) was a famous French Female painter. She was born in Bourges, France. Morisot’s father was a high-ranking civil servant and her mother the great-niece of the rococo painter Jean-Honore Fragonard. Her parents even built an art studio for Morisot and her sisters. She was one of the members of the circle of painters who were known as Impressionist painters.

Encouragement from Parents

She and her sister Edma received an extensive art education. She began her training under Geoffroy Alphonse Chocarne and later she had her lessons with Joseph-Benoit Guichard. The Morisot sisters copied the works by Veronese and Rubens. They met Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, a painter from Barbizon School, in 1861. Three years later, Morisot started submitting her work to the Paris Salon.

Eduoard Manet, An Important Relationship

Morisot met Eduoard Manet in 1868 and this meeting marked a crucial event for both the artists. Both of them developed a professional relationship that helped shape their artistic future. For Morisot, her association with Manet helped her to find access to the new group of artists and painters that would later become the Impressionists. Meeting Manet also helped her to find her husband in Manet’s brother, Eugene Manet in1874. Eugene Manet abandoned his budding painting career to support his wife, Morisot.

The same year that she married Eugene Manet, she received an invitation to exhibit in the first Impressionist exhibition. Thereafter, Morisot exhibited in seven out of eight impressionist shows held between 1874 and 1886. The one exhibition that she missed was because she was recovering from her illness after the birth of her daughter, Julie. Her daughter Julie and Morisot sisters would feature in many of Morisot’s works later. Thereafter, not only did Morisot become an important part of the Impressionist circle, but her home became a centre for intellectuals and artists to met frequently.

Morisot was a true innovator who died at the height of her career. Art critic, Paul Mantz, wrote in his review of the third Impressionist exhibition in 1877 that “there is only one true Impressionist in the whole revolutionary group – and that is Berthe Morisot”. Though her paintings were received a lot of appreciation, some writers weighed in the painter’s gender by using the terms like ‘flirtatious’ and ‘Charming’ to describe her work. It had become a matter of concern that these gender-based terminologies and labels did not find a place in the reviews of paintings by the other male painters.

Her Paintings

‘The Cradle’ (1872), ‘Reclining Woan in Grey’ (1879), ‘The Green Umbrella’, (1873), ‘The Garden at Maurecourt’. (1884), ‘Julie Dreaming’ (1894),

Mary Cassatt (1844-1926)

Early Life

Mary Cassatt was born into a wealthy family in the year 1844 in Allegheny city, which is now part of Pitsburg, Pennsylvania, USA. She later migrated to Europe and settled down permanently in France in 1874. Her father, Robert, was a successful stockbroker and land speculator and her mother came from a banking family. Cassatt spent five years of her childhood in Europe. During this period, Cassatt visited many European capitals and learned German and Fresh which would become helpful to her in her painting career. From her childhood, Mary Cassatt showed interest in painting. But her family disagreed with her wish. Despite her family’s disagreement, Cassatt began studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia when she was only 15. She is best known for her Impressionistic paintings.

Paris, her Home

Cassatt began her formal training in art and painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1862. From 1865, she continued her artistic education in Europe, studying in Rome, Paris and Madrid. Cassatt received training under Jean Leon Gerome and Thomas Couture in Paris. She exhibited her first work ‘The Mandolin Player’ at the Paris Salon in 1868. With the start of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870, she had to cut short her stay in Europe and return to Philadelphia. She again went back to Europe after just about a year and travelled to several places in Italy, Spain, Belgium and Holland to study, examine and copy works by famous painters. By 1874, she decided to live permanently in Paris and about three years later, her parents and her sister joined her in Paris.

Relationship with Degas

She had professional relationships with the famous painter Edgar Degas. She was the only American artist official associated with the Impressionist circle. Like so many other painters in Impressionist painters, Cassett had become frustrated by the constraints placed by the Salon on the artworks that could be exhibited at the Salon. At his time, in 1877, Edgar Degas, a well-known painter invited her to exhibit her works with the Impressionists. Thereafter, Cassette exhibited about 11 of her paintings at the first exhibition held in 1879. She also participated in the next three exhibitions held in 1880, 1881 and 1886.

Mutually beneficial association with Degas

Cassett’s association with the other artists in the group of Impressionists had a great impact on her art. Especially, her friendship with Degas helped both of them encourage each other immensely. In fact, Cassett helped Degas sell his works in the US. Their studios were very close to each other and hence they visited each other frequently and worked in collaboration. Although Cassatt sought to receive tenets of Impressionism, she always wanted to become independent as a woman artist throughout her career. Even her travel to Europe was against the wishes of her parents who wanted her to be a wife and mother and not to be an artist with independent means of livelihood.

Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986)

Her Early Days

Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) was born near Sun Prairie Wisconsin, US. She was one of her parents’ six siblings and she grew up on a Wisconsin dairy farm. She received art lessons at home and, recognizing her ability to draw and paint, her teachers cultivated her talent to draw and paint. Georgia began her art training in 1905 at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and then the Art Students League of New York. She worked for two years as a commercial illustrator and then taught in Virginia, Texas and South Carolina between 1911 and 1918.

Her Marriage

Alfred Stieglitz, an art dealer, held an exhibition of her works in 1917. She moved to New York at Stieglitz’s request and began working seriously as an artist. Alfred Stieglitz’s personal relationship with the art dealer let to their marriage in 1924. Thereafter, she began spending her time in the Southwest and this fueled her instinct to paint New Mexico landscapes and images of skulls. The result was her paintings such as ‘Cow’s Skull: Red, White, and Blue’ and ‘Ram’s Head While Hollyhock and Little Hills’.

Her Lucrative Floral Painting

Georgia O’Keeffe was an American modernist painter. She is famous for her large-format paintings, particularly, of enlarged flowers and bones, New York Skyscrapers and landscapes around New Mexico. She was called the ‘Mother of American Modernism‘. One of Georgia’s floral paintings sold for $US 44.4 million at an auction. This sale value set a record for a painting by a female artist.

‘Cow’s Skull: Red, White, and Blue’

Georgia O’Keeffe spent a lot of time in New Mexico and Lake George and New York. This changed her interest in the choice of her subjects for painting. Instead of New York buildings, Georgia turned her focus to nature and skulls became the centre of her focus. Experts feel that the jagged edges and worn-out surface of the skull represent the beauty of the American Desert and the strength of the American spirit. The red, white and blue background gives it a sense of patriotism. When she left high school, she had decided to become a professional artist.

‘Jimson Weed’

Georgia O’Keeffe painted ‘Jimson Weed, an oil on linen paintingin 1936. She was immensely fond of jimson weed, a species of flower, so much that she ignored the toxicity of its seeds and allowed it to flourish in her patio. The painting is a depiction of four large blossoms of a jimson weed, pin-wheel shaped flower. Georgia O’Keeffe originally titled the painting ‘Miracle Flower, JIson Weed’. Elizabeth Arden, a cosmetics magnate commissioned her to paint this peie of art. The patron wanted the painting displaying it in the excise room of her Fifth Avenue Salon to encourage her clients. Arden paid $10000 for the largest floral composition of O’Keeffe.

The Final Years of Life

After Stieglitz’s death, she lived in New Mexico at Georgia O’Keeffe Home and Studio in Abiquie until the last year of her life. Her 1932 painting ‘Jimson Weed/White Flower No.1’ sold for US$44 million. After her death, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum was established.

Marie Bracquemond

Marie Bracquemond was the least-known among the Three ‘Grand Dames’ – (Morisot, Cassatt, and Bracquemond.)

In 1928 French art historian Henri F’ocillon wrote that ‘there were three ‘grand dames’ of Impressionism: Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, and Marie Bracquemond. Of these, Marie Bracquemond is arguably the least known. Morisot and Cassatt were lucky enough to find help from their families’ class and connections in furthering their painting career to greater heights. It helped them greatly in overcoming the sexist barriers in the painting arena at that time. However, Bracquemond was not so lucky.

Her Successful Early Days

Marie Bracquemond (1840-1916) came from a humble and unstable upbringing. She was the child of an unhappy arranged marriage. Her father died shortly after her birth. Bracquemond’s mother remarried and kept moving from place to place before settling at a place in the south of France. As a teenager, Bracquemond trained with a local painter Auguste Vassor. In spite of the fact that she was largely self-taught and her artistic education was not much to brag about, Bracquemond tasted her first success when one of her paintings received acceptance in the Paris Salon. This also turned out to be an occasion for her to become acquainted with the famous artist Jean Auguste-Dominique Ingres. Bracquemond began training with him in his studio. She was aged only 17 at the time.

Her short stint with artist Jan Auguste-Dominique Ingres

The critic Philippe Burty referred to her as ‘one of the most intelligent pupils in Ingres’ studio. Bracquemond had to part with Ingres, reportedly, because of his sexist views. She wrote in her letter in 1860 that “Monsieur Ingres frightened her because he doubted the courage and perseverance of a woman in the field of painting. He would assign to them only the painting of flower, of fruits of still lives, portraits and genre scenes” Once she left his studio, Bracquemond kept getting commissions that helped her build her painting career. She came to be recognized as one of the first impressionist painters who began painting outdoors. Many of Barcquomond’s best-known works were painted outdoors especially in her garden at Sevres. One of her last paintings was ‘The Artist’s Son and Sister in the Garden at Sevres’.

Her Marriage and further Commissions

Bracquemond participated in the exhibition of the Impressionists three times; in 1879, 1880, and 1886. In 1879 and 1880, some of her drawings were published in La Vie Moderne. In 1881, she exhibited five of her works at the Dudley Gallery in London. Bracquemond began receiving commissions, including one from the court of Empress Eugenie, the Empress of France and wife of Napoleon III. Besides this, the Director-General of French Museums also commissioned her to copy more paintings in the Louvre.

Her Marriage, a Boon or a Bane?

This was when Bracquemond met and married her husband, Felix Bracquemond, who, thereupon, introduced her to his artist friends, such as Millet, Corot, Degas, and Rodin. Her mother was opposed to their marriage. However, Marie and Felix remained engaged for two years before marrying in Aug 1869. Initially, Felix, her husband, helped her secure some other commissions. Besides the commissions that she received through her husband, she also became involved in his work for the Haviland Limoges Factory, where he was the artistic director.

His Experimentation with the effects of light

In her painting ‘The Muses’, she designed plates for dinner services and tin-glazed earthenware. This painting was shown at the Universal Exhibition of 1878. The sketch used for the design was shown at the Impressionist Exhibition of 1879. The well-known painter Edgar Degas became one of Bracquemond’s greatest admirers. From the late 1870s, Bracquenond began sketching and painting en Plein air and Monet Renoir and Degas became her mentors. Monet was the one who motivated Bracquemond to join the Impressionist movement.

Her Well-known Paintings

Marie Bracquomond’s fascination with the coloristic effects on white resulted in her paintings such as ‘Woman in white’ and ‘On the Terrace at Sevres’. Both these paintings appeared in the 1880 exhibition. Barcquomond’s painting ‘Woman in White’ became an archetypal Impressionist motif around the world. ‘Tea Time’ and ‘Under the Lamp’ are two other paintings that are examples of Bracquemond’s experimentation with different light effects. ‘Woman in the Garden’, ‘Afternoon Tea’, ‘Woman With An Umbrella’, ‘The Three Graces’, are some of Bracquemond’s other famous paintings, largely featuring female characters.

Her Greatest Challenge

The discouragement meted out to her by her husband turned out to be Bracquomond’s greatest challenge in her painting career. Bracquemond’s son, Pierre, in his recorded statements, pointed to the pain that his mother was undergoing because of her husband’s negative approach toward her. Pierre had also expressed the difficulties that Marie Barcquomond was facing because his father’s jealousy was purely on account of her talent. By 1890, the domestic conflict provoked Bracquomond to give up painting almost completely. However, she remained a servant defender of Impressionism. Though her painting career was brief, she shone the brightest on the horizon of the artistic world that is overwhelmingly studded with male stars. Paradoxically, today’s world knows Felix as Bracquomond’s husband and not on the strength of his name.

Bracquomond died on January 17, 1916. Bracquemond was included in the 2018 exhibit ‘Women in Paris 1850-1900’.

Tamara De Lempicka (1898-1980)

Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011)

June Leaf (1929)

June Leaf was born and raised in Chicago, USA. She is known for her abstract allegorical paintings and drawings. June Leaf is based in New York City and Mabou, Nova Scotia. She also works in modernist kinetic sculpture. She married film-maker and photographer, Robert Frank in 1971.

She studied for three months between 1947 and 1948 at the IIT Institute of Design taking classes with artist Hugo Weber. June Leat the school and traveled to Paris in 1948 for independent learning at the age of 18. Leaf returned to Illinois in 1954 looking for her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Art Education from Roosevelt University and an M.A. degree in Art Education at the Institute of Design.

Her Works

Leaf returned to Paris in 1958-1959 with the help of Fulbright Grant for painting. When she returned from Paris in 1960, she moved to New York City. She established a studio in the remote town of Mabou, Nova Scotia at around the same time. June Leaf married filmmaker and photographer, Robert Frank in 1971. Some of her famous works include ‘Coney Island’ (1968), ‘The Girl with the Hoop (1980), ‘Second Skeleton’ (2009-2010), etc.

Awards

Leaf received an Honorary Doctorate, Humane Letter in 1984 from DePaul University. In 1996, she received Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD). Some of the other rewards that she received include the Distinguished Artists Awards from the Canadian Council in 1984 and a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grant in painting in 1989. In 2016 the Whitney Museum of Amerian Art held the retrospective exhibition ‘June Leaf: Thought is infinite’. In the same year, another retrospective took place at the Edward Thorp Gallery in New York entitled ‘June Leaf: A Survey, 1949-present’.

Angelica Kauffman

Her Early Life

Angelica Kauffman, who was also famous as ‘Miss Angel’, was Austrian. Her mother was Swiss and her father an unsuccessful painter was Austrian. Her father had a studio where he was at work as a painter. Angelica grew up in his studio and she was very attentive while her father was painting. Her father noticed that she had a great taste for painting and was immensely talented. But, he used to ask Angelica not to sing her painting so that her paintings would pass off as his own.

Her Twin Talents, Painting and Singing

Some of the other successful women painters, including Artemisia Gentileschi and Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun, were also daughters of painters. It is now a very well-known fact that talented and aspiring female painters always needed such a background to acquire an artistic background in those days. But Angelica was a prodigy and this was proved by her self-portrait that she made when she was barely 13 years of age. In addition to being a talented artist, she was the proud owner of a beautiful singing voice and she was an amateur singer all her life. This duel talent in her made it a bit difficult for her to make a decision regarding which one of her traits should she choose between painting and singing in her youth.

‘Miss Angel’

Angelica went to London in 1766 when she became established as a painter in Italy. At that time, she was just 25 years of age. She became so successful in London that a word was coined to describe people’s obsession with her, ‘Angelicamad’. Her works were reproduced in engravings on teapots and porcelain The new invention of ‘transfer printing’ made these items much cheaper and she gained an international reputation. As it happened in the case of numerous other women painters when it came to painting the human body, she too had to follow the unwritten traits of decorum, which male painters need not adhere to, or lose her aristocratic patrons. Experts believe that Angelia was under enormous pressure to behave as ‘Miss Angel’, the affectionate name that she earned from her friend, Joshua Reynolds.

A Founding Member of The Royal Academy

Angelica did history and literary painting as much ease as she did portraits, often showing melancholy women left behind by the macho exploits of their men. She painted many aristocrats and members of the royal family, including Queen Charlotte. Queen Charlotte and Angelica were about the same age and it was probably due to the influence of the Queen that Angelica was one of the only two women to become founding members of the Royal Academy of Arts when it opened in 1768.