Berwick St James Art Appreciation

Emerging from the Shadows – Women in Art Part I

Thursday 9th February 2023 at 7pm

I am sure that those of you, who regularly visit art galleries and exhibitions, must at some time or other, have wondered why female artists are so under represented. For example, female artists form less than 1% of the National Gallery collection. This can be explained in part by the relative absence of female painters, until the 18th century and the taste of aristocratic and Royal patronage for recognised masters, almost all of whom were male; it is the resulting renowned collections, which ended up in Institutions such as The National Gallery, Wallace collection, Tate Britain, the Courtauld and Municipal galleries throughout the UK. The Louvre in Paris, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Kunsthistorisches in Vienna, the Ufizzi in Rome and the Prado in Madrid etc were all similarly endowed.

 

Over two meetings, I hope to further explain the context in which women found it so difficult to ‘break through the glass ceiling’ and redress the imbalance, by bringing to your attention individuals artists, who whilst not in the first echelon of the accepted ‘Great Masters’ such as Giotto, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, Rubens, Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Delacroix, Cezanne and Picasso, nevertheless found their niche, in particular genres. Please join me as together we learn more about women in art, including those in the 19th century, who were model, muse and artist.