HON 205 Women Artists

In the traditional art education system of Victorian England, female artists were predisposed for failure. Two of the founders of the Royal Academy of Arts, Mary Moser and Angelica Kauffman, wouldn’t have been allowed to study in the school they helped  build until nearly a century after its establishment, when in 1860, the Academy admitted their first female artist entirely on accident; Laura Herford sent in a drawing to the school with only her initials on it and was accepted before anyone could figure out that she wasn’t a man. Large, private academies like the RAA effectively “…

This painting, titled “A modern Cinderella” (1875), was created with oil paints by Louise Jopling, a prominent Victorian artist who rose to fame in the 19th century after she established an all-female school for artists in London, called “Mrs. Jopling’s School of Art.” In this image, Jopling depicts a woman removing her pink, frilly dress to reveal simple underclothing, who loses her left shoe in the process. While the painting is a nod to the folk and fairy tale after which it is named, further examination reveals hidden feminist themes.

Jopling portrays three different kinds of…

Helen Allingham (née Paterson) was born on September 26th, 1848 to Alexander Paterson, M.D., and Mary Herford in Derbyshire, England as the oldest of seven children. After the passing of her father in 1862 to a diphtheria epidemic when Allingham was thirteen years old, the family moved to Birmingham (Clayton 1). She had expressed an interest in art from an early age after exposure to it from her maternal grandmother and aunt, both of whom were accomplished artists in both oils and watercolors (Clayton 2). In fact, her aunt, Laura Herford, was the first woman ever admitted to the Royal…

Sophie Gengembre Anderson was a well-known Victorian artist during the second half of the nineteenth century. She was born in 1823 in Paris, France and studied under German-born artist Charles de Steuben for a year in 1843. Anderson is considered fortunate for this brief professional training in art, because at that time few women were able to receive a formal art education.1 Later, her family was forced to flee to America after the 1848 revolution in France. In 1849, she married an English artist, Walter Anderson. During her time in the United States, Anderson continued to paint and…

Elaine was painted by Sophie Anderson in 1870 while she resided in Italy. This painting was bought by the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool becoming the first work by a female artist to be bought by a public institution.1 These public galleries would showcase art that propagated the ideals and messages that they wanted to instill in the public.2 Anderson’s works illustrate the social constraints on each gender. Here, Anderson shows the dead, heartbroken body of Elaine of Astolat, described in the stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. This work embodies Anderson’…

In 1880, British watercolorist Helen Allingham created an artwork titled “The Lady of the Manor” using watercolors. This painting features an unnamed lady in the center of the image in front of a large tree, looking down at two children who appear to be collecting sticks and flowers in a hat. In the background, there is a dense forest, a dog, some deer, and a manor. From the title and eye-catching details of the painting, the viewer connects that the lady is the focal point of the painting and the manor is her home. The woman is further emphasized with the black dress she wears in the…