Whether posthumously or during their lifetime, these talented women made their mark in art history through trailblazing and exceptional work.
Why have there been no great women artists? This question was explored by American art historian Linda Nochlin in her pivotal 1971 essay, which takes the interrogation as its title. It’s a fascinating and incisive analysis that studies how, throughout history, it has been “institutionally made impossible for women to achieve artistic excellence, or success, on the same footing as men, no matter what the potency of their so-called talent or genius.”
Virginia Woolf’s 1929 essay, “A Room of One’s Own,” follows a similar line of thought, posing a hypothetical scenario of Shakespeare having a gifted sister named “Judith,” who despite being as talented, adventurous, imaginative, and “agog to see the world as he was,” simply remained home and never flourished in the way he did due to a lack of opportunities and stifling social norms.
Even in the 21st century, the blatant lack of female representation in the field of art history is still a prevalent issue, one that captured the attention of British art historian Katy Hessel as she surveyed EH Gombrich’s The Story of Art. The book is described as a “definitive” guide to art history, yet its first edition in 1950 included no female artists, while its 16th edition added only one woman: German artist Käthe Kollwitz.
The field of visual art is, like any part of history, subject to omissions depending on who’s telling the story and assigning value to creators of art. This was what Hessel wanted to rectify through her Instagram platform @thegreatwomenartists and highly-lauded book, The Story of Art Without Men—a corrective compendium that highlights all the women Gombrich failed to.
It’s not as though women were never “good enough” to earn recognition, as the exemplary pieces in Hessel’s colorful feed show us. Many female artists were unfortunately discouraged from pursuing their passion, deprived of the same opportunities as their male contemporaries, or overlooked until a fateful discovery of their works (normally posthumously) reignited interest. With March being Women’s Month, now is as good a time as any to highlight women who not only deserve to be celebrated, but also remembered for their artistic contributions and achievements.
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Artemisia Gentileschi
Artemisia Gentileschi, born in Rome in 1593, was one of the first women in the world who gained immense fame for her art during her lifetime. Still, her path was not easy. Despite being born into a family of artists, she was prohibited from attending still life classes or wandering the city streets to sketch studies. Nevertheless, she managed to become the first woman admitted to Florence’s Accademia delle Arti del Disegno, a prestigious art school where she honed her talents, as Hessel details in The Story of Art Without Men.
Artemisia’s portraits of the aristocracy were coveted, earning her patrons like Charles I and the Medici family. As an artist during the Baroque period, which prized dark, theatrical pieces with passionate and violent motifs, she excelled at creating pieces of Biblical heroines that stand as powerful visual representations of women reclaiming autonomy.
These include the 1610 painting “Susanna and the Elders,” depicting the virtuous Susanna of the Old Testament fighting off two lecherous men who harass her as she’s bathing (Artemesia painted it at the age of 17); as well as “Judith Slaying Holofernes,” featuring another Old Testament character, Holofernes, the Assyrian general decapitated by the eponymous Judith, who’s determined to stop him from conquering her city of Bethulia.
Sadly, Gentileschi had firsthand experience with violence, having been sexually assaulted by Agostino Tassi, a friend of her father’s, in 1611. After a long trial, in which Tassi was excused by the Pope despite being found guilty, Artemisia married and continued her flourishing career—still painting fiery female figures. Her works fell into obscurity after her death, and only experienced a resurgence in the past four decades since art historians Ann Sutherland Harris and Linda Nochlin mounted the survey “Women Artists: 1550-1950” in 1976 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).
Suzanne Valadon
French painter Suzanne Valadon was a trailblazer who made a name for herself as the first woman to be exhibited at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1894. Born in 1865, she reached the Post-Impressionism period of art history, specifically the rise of Fauvism, where artists in Paris were using intense colors to create stylized depictions of the human figure. Although she couldn’t afford proper schooling in the early years of her career, she modeled for famous artists like Toulouse-Lautrec and Edgar Degas, both of whom taught her invaluable painting techniques.
As Hessel details in her book, Valadon was famous during her lifetime, painting “taboo-breaking” pieces featuring nude figures, a subject matter that was uncommon for women at the time. These include the playful “Reclining Nude” (1928), as well as the more mundane “Nude Arranging Her Hair” (1916). The artist captured the “New Woman” of the era, depicting strongly independent figures. Her life had its challenges, including a birth out of wedlock to her son, artist Maurice Utrillo, but she continued to gain widespread recognition in the 1920s, with four retrospective exhibitions within her lifetime.
“Exuding self-assurance and confidence in her intellect, Valadon is in control of her brush, her image and her life, epitomising the modern Parisian woman who could do whatever she wanted, whenever she pleased,” writes Hessel in The Story of Art Without Men.
Rha Hye-Seok
Born in 1896, Rha Hye-Seok was a multi-hyphenated talent ahead of her time, being both Korea’s first female painter and feminist writer. Her novels and short stories presented highly controversial ideas on marriage equality—something noteworthy considering Korean society’s oppressive views and treatment of women, which persists even today.
Though Rha was born into a wealthy family, she was not exempt her from the societal expectations of the time, which led her to help launch and contribute to the magazine Sinyoja (“New Woman”) in the 1920s. The publication featured articles on the women’s liberation movement, and included her essays on marriage and motherhood. Rha’s privileged upbringing and her parents’ more progressive views, gave her access to an education unlike anything most of her peers experienced.
In 1913, at the age of 18, she went to Japan to study at the Tokyo Arts College, majoring in Western oil painting. LACMA states in an audio commentary, she was the first Korean woman to adopt this style. She held her first solo exhibition in Seoul in 1921, and gained considerable respect for her pioneering work. During a stay in Paris, she studied under the studio of Roger Bissière, which “gave way to bolder, darker paintings” in her Impressionist style, LACMA adds.
Rha also married for love rather than through a matchmaker’s arrangement, choosing lawyer and diplomat Kim Woo-Young. However, her marriage eventually ended in a divorce due to her alleged extramarital affair with Choi Rin, a figure in the native Korean religion of Chondogyo. Divorce and affairs were deeply stigmatized at the time, and her publication of the piece “Confession about My Divorce” only fanned the flames, since most of society was still wary of outspoken women with progressive ideas. She was shunned, her reputation irrevocably damaged, leaving her to live the rest of her life in destitution until her death in 1948.
It’s a tragic story, but it presents some food for thought on double standards: male artists like Pablo Picasso and Paul Gauguin have had their fair share of sexual dalliances and scandals—but these cases haven’t really diminished their legacies or value today.
Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh
Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh (1864-1933) was a British artist based in Scotland who pioneered what’s known as the “Glasgow Style” of art in the 1890s. She and her sister Frances enrolled at the Glasgow School of Art, where she met her future husband Charles Rennie Mackintosh, a famed architect and designer.
Her highly-stylized watercolors and metaworks featured a distinctively ornate and stylized look that fans of the Art Nouveau style will instantly recognize. In fact, Margaret, her husband, sister, and brother-in-law Herbert MacNair, formed the “Glasgow Four,” an artists’s group associated with Art Nouveau’s conception.
Their works borrowed from Victorian Puritanism and Celtic Spiritualism. They also inspired Gustav Klimt, who was paving the way for Art Nouveau in Vienna. Scholars say that after seeing their exhibition in Vienna, he began integrating their visual sensibilities into his own works (namely his gargantuan “Beethoven Frieze”).
Harriet Powers
Quiltmaking is a more unconventional form of visual art when compared to painting, but it’s an equally evocative medium. The works of artist Harriet Powers, whom Hessel describes in her book as “the most renowned quiltmaker of the nineteenth century,” are proof of that.
Born in Georgia, Powers was a slave who learned how to quilt through other women in her family. She was also highly literate—reading informed her craft, enabling her to translate stories like those from the Bible into visual narratives on fabric using the applique and piecework techniques through both machine and hand stitching.
Today, only two works of hers survive: “Bible Quilt” (1886) and “Pictorial Quilt” (1898), the former now held at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and the latter under the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Both are stunning examples of 19th-century Southern quilting styles. As the name suggests, “The Bible Quilt” contains 11 squares depicting various stories from the Bible (including The Last Supper and Genesis’s creation story), reflecting Powers’s deep faith and spirituality.
While historical records on Powers are scarce, scholars have discovered commentary she wrote about her quilts, which showcase her storytelling abilities. “Pictorial Quilt” came with the description “[t]he falling of the stars on November 13, 1833. The people were fright and thought that the end had come. God’s hand staid the stars. The varmints rushed out of their beds,” according to Cathy Newman of National Geographic. This referenced the real-life Leonid meteor shower of 1833, where shooting stars fell like rain—a story that preceded Powers’s birth, but was passed down to her.
Researchers have gleaned that Powers was immensely proud of her work, often seeking opportunities to talk about the quilts she made. Only one picture of her survives, from the time she went to a photographer’s studio and had it taken—maybe knowing that she’d one day become an inspirational figure in American art history.
Araceli Limcaco Dans
Last but certainly not least is the Philippines’s very own Araceli Limcaco-Dans (whom loved ones fondly remember as “Cheloy”). Her work is highly valued today, though her name doesn’t appear as frequently as those as other great Filipino artists like Anita Magsaysay-Ho.
The art community will remember her for her delicate and captivating still-life portraits of flowers, usually accompanied by calado—intricate, lace embroidery. Skilled in various mediums, from watercolor to oil painting, Dans left a mark on Philippine contemporary art, even more so after her passing on May 18, 2024.
Growing up during World War II and serving as the family’s breadwinner, Dans took on many responsibilities at a young age. Thankfully, she was an artistic prodigy, and was enrolled as the only child in an adult program at Santa Rosa College, where she drew propaganda comics during the Japanese occupation, as noted in a tribute post by the University of the Philippines.
She entered Philippine Women’s University for senior high school and made a living drawing portraits for American soldiers. Around this time, National Artist Fernando Amorsolo spotted her potential and enrolled her to the School of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines in Diliman. He ensured that she was accelerated—graduating after three years, rather than the usual four—placing her in classes with seniors so she could start her career as soon as possible.
“He did that so I could work straightaway. Sabi niya, ‘Hindi na kita papahirapin’ [He said, ‘I won’t make it hard for you.’],” she tells the University of the Philippines in an interview. True enough, her career took off, resulting in more than 100 solo and group exhibitions in the Philippines and abroad. She also earned numerous accolades, including the Cultural Center of the Philippines’s Centennial Award and the Mariang Maya Award. Dans was also considered for National Artist several times.
Beyond being an artist, Dans was also a dedicated educator, having established the Fine Arts Department at Philippine Women’s University. She also created a series of videos for Ateneo Educational Television from 1964 to 1968 to teach young grade schoolers about the arts.
This is by no means a comprehensive list, but let this be a call to action to look beyond the traditional historical narratives. At the same time, let’s support the talented women artists of today, ensuring their creative legacies endure.
Banner photo featured works: “Susanna and the Elders”; “Sumbrero ni Mang Temyong” ; ”Pictorial Quilt”; “Mysterious Garden”; “The Blue Room.”
