The latest new exhibition at Tate Britain, “Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920” has been widely acclaimed as a turning point in the perception of women artists in art history. It is an amazing achievement by its curator, Tabitha Barber, to have rescued and accumulated over 150 works of art, many of which were thought to be lost, destroyed or just attributed to male artists, but now rescued from oblivion. The exhibition reinstates women in the mainstream of British art.
The exhibition begins the history of women artists with several examples to emphasise how precarious being a woman artist must have been in the 16th and 17th centuries, and how little of their output remains. Susanna Horenbout and Levina Teerlinc were artists in Henry VIII’s court producing portrait miniatures, but very little of their work remains and little is attributed to them. Anne Wemyss and Sarah Broman are listed and recorded as being professional artists in 1658 but none of their work appears to remain. Mary Beale had a portrait studio in London in 1660 but she is only known through documentation from her husband Charles, although her son did sit for one of her paintings Bacchus in 1660. Only one painting by Mary Grace survives, a self-portrait exhibited in the 1760’s, even though she was a member of the Society of Women Artists and must have produced many more.
This theme continues, tenuous evidence for the existence of female artists and their works. However, one exception is perhaps Artemisia Gentileschi, an Italian woman, who came to Britain in 1638 for a three-year period during which time she composed Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting (La Pittura). This very sophisticated and accomplished work established her as the most famed female painter of the baroque movement. Yet not all her works of art were recognised at the time: one of her other works, Susanna and the Elders was only recognised as a Gentileschi in 2023!
The story of one woman, Louise Jopling, is a good example and typifies the lives of most female artists living in previous centuries. She was the first woman to be admitted to the Royal Society of British Artists and had rich patrons, and although her paintings were commercially successful selling at high prices, as a woman artist the remuneration for her works was far less than her male counterparts at that time. She became a prominent art figure in the 19th C when she opened an art school in 1887 because she was determined women should have the same art training as men. This sheds light on how women artists were determined to have equal access to art training and academy membership.
Self-portrait No 2 in Red by Louise Joplin 1875
Jopling painted 750 works of art before her death in 1933, aged 90, unfortunately the location of most of them is still unknown, and only a few have been acquired by public art galleries. Through the Looking Glass was the first painting of hers to enter the national collection when it was acquired by Tate Britain only this year, her body of work and professional career previously overlooked. It is said that men would patronise her using ridiculous gender stereotypes describing her art as ‘surprisingly good’; it was judged differently because it was based on male attitudes towards women. In addition, there was the (male?) opinion that women artists were regarded as amateur hobbyists, and their work less worthy than that produced by men.
Louise Jopling demonstrates that women pursued careers, were commissioned by royalty, enjoyed critical acclaim, ran successful portrait studios, opened their own art schools despite determined attempts by the male art establishment to put obstacles in their way
The exhibition is comprehensive in its offering. There is a botanical illustration section where works by women artists are on display. Women have always excelled in works of art with accurate and beautiful detail, as seen in Peonies by Clara Maria Pope on show.
The exhibition also includes photography. Photography was not initially considered an art form and The Photographic Society of London welcomed female members, such as Agnes Warberg who pioneered colour photography, but little is known of her contributions in this field of expertise. Another photographer, Olive Edis was Britain’s first female war photographer during the 1st World war. Through a diverse range of exhibits Tate Britain dismantles stereotypes of women artists by showing that they painted history pieces, battle scenes and nudes and an extensive portfolio of photographic work.
Spanning 400 years of women artists in the art world, “Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920” emphatically refutes the idea that female artists have never produced meaningful works and the show demonstrates that all but the most successful or lucky women artists to be recognised have all been erased from history. At last, the forgotten story of Britain’s women’s artists has been rewritten.
In her book of 2019, ironically titled, ‘Women can’t paint . . .’ Helen Gørrill produced much evidence to suggest that even today works of art produced by women are undervalued, under appreciated and judged inferior (by men) to that of men. She said that in the vanguard of the ‘Me too’ movement the art world should take action to correct this gender imbalance. In its latest exhibition Tate Britain has begun a discourse to correct this anomaly because it transforms one’s view of art history by exposing the myth that women can’t paint. A must see for all men!
“Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920” is at Tate Britain, London until 13th of October 2024.
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