nochlin linda why have there been no great women artists

It features three artists who are certainly worthy of rediscovery. O’Keeffe, Stettheimer, Torr, Zorach: Women Modernists of New York, currently showing at the Portland Museum of Art, examines the obstacles female artists faced in the early 20th Century in terms of production, interpretation and reception.

“Proof,” says Lang, “that if there is a great painter the time of rediscovery always comes. It has, in fact, been reprinted three times, and the popular response has been overwhelming. Baillio recalls being told that the show wouldn’t draw crowds and that his catalogue would be remaindered. Museum directors were also wary of putting on shows that consisted solely of portraits. Renowned for her exquisite treatment of colour, fabric and texture she could also, “capture a likeness like nobody,” says curator of the Paris exhibition, Joseph Baillio. At 23 she painted the first of many portraits of Marie Antoinette, whose direct intervention finally allowed her to enter the Académie Royale, from which she had previously been excluded due to her marriage to Charles Le Brun, an art dealer. She was the most successful, and expensive, portrait painter of the 18th Century, yet when the retrospective of her work opened at Paris’ Grand Palais in 2015, few outside academia had heard her name.Ī precociously gifted artist known for her wit and beauty, Le Brun had established a portrait studio while still in her teens. Unlike Peeters, the life of Louise Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun is well documented. “How could you not read into that a certain will to be recognised?” Perhaps now, she will be. Vergara sees it as a discreet but assertive proclamation of her worthiness, not only of being a painter, but also a woman painter. This was yet another innovation no still life painter had previously thought to depict themselves in this way. We can perhaps gain some clues to her personality from the numerous miniature self-portraits reflected in the gilt cups and goblets of her paintings.

But beyond that the details of her life remain a mystery. “We do know that the leading collectors of the time had paintings by her,” says Vergara.

Nochlin linda why have there been no great women artists