Now You See Us

 Reviewed: Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920 at Tate Britain

Dear friends.  I popped over to Tate Britain in the last few days of this exhibition.  Normally I record a few photos and thoughts on Instagram Stories, but this exhibition is so important, so beautifully curated and so inspiring I thought I would devote a blog post to it.

The title, Now You See Us, is wonderful because it sums up the issue.  Women artists were largely underrated and quickly forgotten. It was apparent from seeing who owns the various paintings.  Very few had been loaned from the big international art museums. It was good to see that many of the paintings were on loan from King Charles. 

From Levina Teerlinc, a miniaturist at the court of Elizabeth I, to Laura Knight, the first woman to be elected a member of the Royal Academy after a gap of more than 150 years, women have been a constant presence in the art world, conducting commercially successful careers and exhibiting in public exhibitions. 

Against society’s expectations of wives, mothers and daughters, limited to the private domestic sphere, they dared to pursue public careers, and to paint history pieces, battle scenes and the nude, usually regarded as the preserve of men.

Artemisia Gentileschi

One of the few female artists who was acclaimed during her lifetime was Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi arrived in London c 1638-9 at the invitation of Charles I. The painting below is likely to have been commissioned by Queen Henrietta.

The subject is an Old Testament narrative on virtue and faith. Susanna, bathing in privacy, is spied on buy two elders who attempt to sexually assault her. When she resists them, the men accuse her of adultery. Susanna is arrested and about to be put to death until the men are questioned , and her innocence is revealed.

Just four women were listed as being professional artists in a 1658 directory. Women were beholden first to their fathers and then their husbands. They had very little choice over their own destiny. By the 17th century, women writers, poets and artists began to question their secondary status. They argued it was lack of education, not "weak minds" that limited their opportunities.

Mary Beale and her family lived near Fleet Street in London between the 1650s and 1660s. She painted privately and had a painting room in their home. Her husband had a civil service position. Mary produced a series of small oil sketches on paper of family members. Below:  Sketch of the Artist's Son Bartholomew 

Joan Carlile moved from Petersham, southwest of London, to Covent Garden to establish a commercial portrait business in 1653.  Many of her paintings show women standing in the same white satin dress. 

The first public art exhibition in Britain was in London in 1760 and it soon became an important part of the city's calendar. The Royal Academy emerged as a driving force, with its summer exhibition attracting tens of thousands of visitors every year.

Two women artists, Angelica Kauffman and Mary Moser, were founding members of the RA but as women they weren't awarded full membership and were excluded from council meetings and governance. 

Art critics at the time claimed women's figurative work was "weak," yet they were denied access to life-drawing classes.

Colour by Kauffman was a painting commisioned as a ceiling painting  for the Academy's Council Chambers. For this she was actually paid the same high fee for her work as the history painter Benjamin West. 

Below: Summer by Mary Moser, c 1780. 

I was very taken with this portrait of philanthropist Elizabeth Montagu by Frances Reynolds, the sister of Joshua Reynolds. She was denied the same training and opportunities her brother had. She kept house for him in London and learnt to paint by making copies of his work. She was a member of the Bluestocking Circle, a group of women writers, artists and intellectuals, and through this she met Montagu. 

It's worth noting that many forms of creativity associated with women were banned from being shown by the Royal Academy, including pastels, miniature painting and watercolours. Joshua Reynolds, President of the RA, said working in pastel was unworthy of real artists and was "just what ladies do when they paint for their own amusement."

Painting flowers was considered a suitably delicate pursuit for women in the 18th and 19th centuries. Many women were employed as professional illustrators, recording plant species for botanical publishers. 

However, in 1855 the art critic John Ruskin said he wished the Mutrie sisters would paint more realistic compositions. He suggested: "Some banks of flowers in wild country, just as they grow."  The painting below by Martha Darley Mutrie, Wild Flowers at the Corner of a Cornfield, 1865-60,  seems to be her response to the criticism. 

One subject which was not considered suitable for women was classical nude composition. Henrietta Rae's Psyche Before the Throne of Venus, 1894, was very daring. She was determined not to be pigeonholed as a "woman artist." This picture was a success at the 1894 Royal Academy Exhibition and received praise from critics. 

The 20th Century

The first two decades saw rapid change for women. The First World War signalled a decisive change for women's place in society and in 1918, after decades of campaigning, some women finally gained the right to vote.

The art world was also changing with the emergence of modernism. Women were still excluded from some exhibitions. 

I've chosen a couple of my favourites from this last room at the exhibition.  Below:  The Bathing Pool by Laura Knight (1877-1970). Knight and her husband moved to Cornwall in 1907. She began painting outdoors in the open air, and her sunlit scenes of leisure, sunbathing and sea bathing are free from academic convention. 

The life sized bronze Venetian Boy Catching a Crab  by Henrietta Montalba (1848-1893) was used by The Art Journal as proof that women did not lack skill and imagination. Her sculpture, the journal argued, proved the opposite. 

I hope you've enjoyed seeing this small selection from the exhibition.  Were you seething, like I was, at the way women artists were treated in the past?  Do give your thoughts in the comments.

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