Now You See Us

Now You See Us - Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920

at Tate Britain.

The exhibition begins with the earliest recorded women artists working in Britain. It ends with women's place in society fundamentally changed by WWI and the first women gaining the right to vote. Across these 400 years, women were a constant presence in the art world. The exhibition explores these artists' careers and asks why so many have been erased from mainstream art histories.

Organised chronologically, the exhibition followed women who practised art as a livelihood rather than an accomplishment. The chosen works were often exhibited at public exhibitions, where these artists sold their art and made their reputations. These women were regarded differently and their fight to be accepted as professional artists on equal terms with men was hard.

Many of the works we saw reflected prejudiced notions of the most appropriate art forms and subjects for women. Others challenged the commonly held belief that women were best suited to 'imitation', proving they have always been capable of creative invention. From painting epic battle scenes to campaigning for access to art academies, these women defied society's limited expectations of them and forged their own paths. Yet so many of their careers have been forgotten and artworks lost. Drawing on the artists' own writings, art criticism, and new and established research, this exhibition attempted to restore these women to their rightful place in art history.

In this post I have concentrated on more recent artists and their work while at the same time, trying to give a brief history of these 400 years.

Angelica Kauffman, Invention, 1778-80, (oil on canvas)

This painting is one of four allegorical roundels representing the Elements of Art that Kauffman was commissioned to paint for the ceiling of the Royal Academy's Council Chamber. In this work, a figure representing 'invention' looks upwards for inspiration.

The Academy's first president Joshua Reynolds, claimed that a painter's gift for invention was their power of committing a mental picture onto canvas. At the time, this form of artistic 'genius' was considered the exclusive preserve of men. Women artists were regarded as 'imitators' incapable of complex creativity. Here, Kauffman presents invention as a woman.

(Of the 36 founding members of the Royal Academy's of Art only two were women: Angelica Kauffman and Mary Moser. It would be over 150 years before another woman was elected a member of the Academy)

Artemisia Gentileschi, Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting (La Pittura), 1638-1639, (oil on canvas)

Here, Gentileschi uses her own image to portray the allegorical figure of Pittura who she depicts in a working apron before an easel absorbed in the act of creation.

Artemisia Gentileschi Susanna and the Elders, 1638-1640, (oil on canvas)

I have written about these two paintings by Gentilseschi extensively here

For more on Gentileschi you can go here

    

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In the 17th century women writers, poets, playwrights and artists began to give voice to those questioning their secondary status and petitioning for women's rights. They argued that it was lack of education, not 'weak minds' that limited their opportunities. This fight for equality and access to education runs throughout the exhibition.

The first public art exhibition in Britain took place in London in 1760, and art shows soon became an important part of the city's social calendar. Women artists played an active part in this competitive world.

Kauffman is one of the few women artists of the 18th century whose profile has been sustained. Many others made names for themselves, but their careers are not well documented. 

Art critics of the time often criticised women for their 'weak'  figurative work, yet they were denied access to life-drawing classes. Painting for money was considered improper. After marriage, many switched their status from commercial to amateur.

Angelica Kauffman, The Return of Telemachus, 1775, (oil on canvas)

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In the 18th and 19th centuries, painting flowers was considered a suitably delicate pursuit for women. Imitating nature (rather than demonstrating creative or imaginative flair) was thought to be an appropriate outlet for women's artistic skills. Flowers were also at the heart of respectable hobbies like embroidery, botany and gardening. Many women were employed as professional illustrators, recording plant species for horticulturists and botanical publishers.

Augusta Innes Withers, An auricula in a pot with a wicker cache-pot, 1830, (watercolour and gum arabic)

Clara Maria Pope, Peony, 1822, (bodycolour on card)

Augusta Innes Withers, Crompton's Sheba Queen, (gooseberries), 1825, (watercolour on paper)

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From the 1850s women petitioned for equal rights to education and work, as well as women's suffrage.

Emily Osborn, Nameless and Friendless 'The rich man's wealth is his strong city: the destruction of the poor is their poverty', 1857, (oil on canvas)

Louise Jopling, Through the Looking Glass, 1875, (oil on canvas)

Anna Lea Merritt, Love Locked Out, 1890, (oil on canvas)

Louise Jopling, A Modern Cinderella, 1875, (oil on canvas)

Elizabeth Forbes, School is Out, 1889, (oil on canvas)

Marianne Stokes, The Passing Train, 1880, (oil on canvas)

Julia Margaret Cameron, The Return After Three Days, 1865, (photograph, albumen print on paper)

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Photography gave women new opportunities. Cameron was given a camera in 1863; within a year, she was elected to the Photographic Societies of London and Scotland.

Julia Margaret Cameron, Hypatia (marie Spartali), 1868, (photograph, albumen print on paper)

Women were excluded from enrolment at the Royal Academy Schools, Britain's principal art academy, until 1860. Laura Herford was the first woman admitted. She had submitted her work for consideration using only her initials and was assumed to be a man. Women were barred from the Academy's life-drawing classes until 1893. In 1871, the founding of the Slade School of Fine Art at University College London signalled a fundamental change of attitudes. From the outset, the Slade offered women an education on equal terms with men.

Laura Knight, Portrait Study, Girl's Profile, 1896, (charcoal on paper)

Ida Knox, Male Figure Seated, 1918, (oil on canvas)

With this study of a semi-draped male figure, Knox won joint first prize for figure painting at the Slade in 1918. Knox painted it in a mixed class. There were more women students than men at the Slade.

Elinor Adams, Female Seated Figure, 1906, (oil on canvas)

                                                    

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Being Modern:

The first two decades of the 20th century saw rapid change for women, with their rights, roles and opportunities evolving at an unprecedented pace. WWI signalled a decisive change for women's place in society and in 1918 after decades of campaining, some women finally gained the right to vote.

At the same time, the art world was also changing. New art groups and exhibiting societies rejected tradition and promoted modernist aesthetics. Instead of figurative realism, they privileged form, colour and experimentation. Many saw modernism as an opportunity for greater artistic freedom. However, despite growing liberalism in art and society, women artists still faced challenges. Women however, forged their own paths and pursued professional careers with purpose and confidence. 

Laura Knight, The Bathing Pool, 1912, (watercolour on paper)

In 1907, Knight and her husband moved to Cornwall. The scenery, company and working conditions nurtured her productivity. Knight began painting outdoors in the open air, and her sunlit scenes of leusure, sun-bathing and sea-bathing are free from academic convention. This watercolour has similarities to a large canvas exhibited at the RA in 1911. As an ambitious work showing women at ease with their bodies, it challenged conservatives expectations of women's art.

Laura Knight, A Dark Pool, 1917, (oil on canvas)

Laura Knight, At the Edge of the Cliff, 1917, (oil on canvas)

Laura Knight, My Lady of the Rocks, 1917-18, (oil on canvas)

Arna Airy, Shop for Machining 15-inch Shells: Singer Manufacturing COmpany, Clydebank, Glasgow, 1918, (oil on canvas)

Clare Atwood, Olympia in War Time: Royal Army Clothing Depor, 1918, (oil on canvas)

Clare Atwood, The Terrace Outside the Priest's House, 1919, (oil on canvas)

Atwood, who went by both 'Clare' and 'Tony', enjoyed a public life working for prestigious institutions and a gay private life. The artist openly identified as a lesbian, and from 1916, lived in a menage a trois with the actor, theatre director, producer and designer Edith Craig and writer and playwright Christabel Marshall. Here, Atwood shows the three partners at their home, the Priest's House, Kent. 

Gwen John, Self-portrait, 1902, (oil on canvas)

Gwen John, Chloe Boughton-Leigh, 1904-8, (oil on canvas)

To see more of Gwen John's work go here

Vanessa Bell, Still Life of Dahlias, Chrysamthemums and Begonias, 1912, (oil on board)

In 1905, Bell founded the Friday Club, offering young artists the opportunity to connect and exhibit. It led to the formation of the Bloomsbury Group, a collective of writers, artists and intellectuals based in London. Artist and critic Roger Fry, a central figure of the group, invited Bell to exhibit at his landmark Second Post-Impressionist Exhibition at the Grafton galleries in 1912. This work was painted around the same time. It was painted a period of experimentation for Bell. The flowers are given a geometric simplicity that reflects Bell's semi-abstract style at the time.

Vanessa Bell, Still Life on Corner of a Mantelpiece, 1914, (oil on canvas)

Bell's use of an unconventional low viewpoint, fractured, abstracted forms and bright colours show her exploring different techniques associated with 20th century art movements.

To see more of Bell's work go here and here

Dolores Courtney, Still Life, 1916, (oil on canvas)

Nina Hamnett, Still Life with a Blue Jug, 1917, (oil on canvas)

Nina Hamnett

Ethel Walker, Decoration: The excursion of Nausica, 1920, (oil on canvas)

From 1912, Walker's focus shifted to what she called her 'decorations'. She moved to a more symbolist aesthetic on a large scale. Here, Walker's scene is based on Book VI from Homer's Odyssey. While washing clothes with her attendants, Nausica encounters a shipwrecked Odysseus. Walker transports this episode to a peaceful utopia comprised almost exclusively of women. Walker often placed women at the centre of her works, celebrating their bodies and sexuality.

Ethel Walker, The Thames at Chelsea, (oil on canvas)

Ethel Wright, The Music Room, Portrait of Una Dugdale, 1912, (oil on canvas)

This is a portrait of suffragette and women's rights activist Una Dugdale. Wright shows Dyvak as cultured and sophisticated, dressed in green, a suffragette colour. Wright made the work the same year Duval made national news for her refusal to promise to obey her husband during their marriage vows. In 1913, Duval published a pamphlet, Love and Honour but Not Obey.

Una Dugdale DUval, Love and Honour but Not Obey, 1913

Sylvia Gosse, The Printer, 1915, (oil on canvas)

Sylvia Gosse, The Nurse, 1920, (oil on canvas)

Gosse's fascination with working women makes her art distinct. The model for this work is likely to be her sister Tessa, who served with the Scottish Women's Hospitals at the front in WWI and was decorated for her work.

Anna Airy, Study for the 'L press: forging the jacket of an 18-inch gun, Armstrong.' 1918, (oil on canvas)