-
1142
Middle Ages - Hildegard of Bingen
Hildegard of Bingen was a famous Medieval artist When she was eight years old her parents enrolled her as a novice to the convent of Disibodenberg. Hildegard had produced famous works of theology and visionary writings. Hildegard had visions, that clarified meanings of Biblical texts. The Pope recognized Hildegard’s reputation as a prophetic voice within the church. These visionary major works and writings were called the Scivias. -
1180
Middle Ages - Herrad of Landsberg
Herrad of Lansberg, also a nun, illustrated Hortus Delicarium, The Hortus Delicarium is regarded as one of the most remarkable religious compilations. The Hortus Deliciarum was a large folio of 636 miniatures, 1200 texts by various authors and several poems by Herrad. Unfortunately, during the Franco-Prussian war the original manuscripts of Hortus Deliciarum were destroyed in the bombing and only a small number of illustrations were reproduced during the nineteenth century. -
1570
Renaissance Age - Plautilla Nelli (1524-1588)
Plautilla Nelli was only 14 years old when her wealthy parents placed her into a convent. During the Renaissance age, women, were forbidden to learn mathematics and anatomy. Nelli produced large scale devotional paintings for the church as well as for private commissions. Today there are twenty known paintings done by Nelli including her painting titled The Last Supper. This painting is known as the largest and earliest known paintings of The Last Supper to be painted by a woman. -
1580
Renaissance Age - Diana Scultori (1547 – 1612)
Diana Scultori is an Italian engraver from Mantua, Italy. She is also known as Diana Mantuana. Scultori learned how to engrave from her father who was also an artist, Giulio Romano.Scultori was a shrewd businesswoman. Sultori often engraved other artists paintings. She engraved Giulio Romano’s paintings. This scene depicts a woman, perhaps Mary Magdalene, who is accused of adultery and taken to Jesus for condemnation. -
17th Century - Rosalba Carriera (1675 - 1757)
Rosalba Carriera was a Venetian Rococo artist. Carriera came to Paris for only a year, but during her short time there her work contributed to a new aristocratic taste. No other woman artist during the century had as much success and influence as her and she was the first artist of the century to explore pastels as a medium. -
17th Century - Marie (Marianne) Loir (1715 - 1769)
Marie Loir is a member of an artistic family and was trained by Jean-Francois de Troy. In 1762 Loir was elected to the Académie of Marseilles. Loir was an artist that would use her art to advocate for the female intellectuals, such as the Marquise du Châtelet (pictured). In this portrait the Marquise is holding math dividers, a white carnation that symbolizes innocence and a wall of books which is a nod towards her intelligence. -
18th Century - Edith Hayllar (1860 – 1948)
Edith Hayllar was a Victorian artist and is one of four daughters to artist James Hayllar, who was also a painter. She exhibited alongside her father at the Royal Academy. She also exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists, the Institute of Oil Painters and the Dudsley Gallery. It is believed that Hayllar stopped painting after leaving her father's house. In fact her granddaughter was unaware that her grandmother painted at all until after her death in 1948. -
20th Century (Europe) - Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876-1907)
Paula Modersohn-Becker was a German Expressionist painter, noted for her self-nude portraits. She is considered one of the most important figures in early expressionism and is recognized as the first known woman artist to paint nude self-portraits. She is also the first woman artist to have a museum devoted exclusively to her work, the Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, located in Breman, Germany. -
20th Century (Europe) - Suzanne Valadon (1865 - 1938)
Suzanne Valadon a French painter was the first woman painter admitted into the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. At 15 years old she worked in a circus, but quit after one year after a fall from the trapeze. Valadon then became a model posing for different artists. She self-taught herself by studying the technique of the artists that she posed for. She is known for powerful nude paintings of women. -
18th Century - Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale (1871 – 1945)
Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale was an English artist born to an upper-class family. She is regarded as one of the most popular Edwardian artists. Her work mainly consisted of illustrations, but she also used different mediums such as stained glass and sculptures. She adapted painting romantic medieval subjects and is identified as the last Pre-Raphaelite. The rest of her career was pioneering for women artists within that time. -
19th Century - Gabrielle Münter (1877 – 1962)
German Expressionist painter, Gabrielle Münter was at the forefront of the Avent-Garde movement in the early 20th century. Münter studied at the Phalanz School in Munich, which was an Avent-Garde institution founded by Russian artist, Wassily Kandinsky. Soon after attending classes at the Phalanz School, Münster would become romantically involved with Kandinsky. In 1908 the couple would settle in Murnau where they both took steps towards abstract painting. -
19th Century - Vanessa Bell (1879 – 1961)
Vanessa Bell was an English painter and is the sister of renowned writer, Virginia Woolf. Bell along with other artists began exhibiting at the Omega Workshops. These workshops would exhibit home designs and become a meeting place for like-minded artists and allowed them to make a livelihood by designing and selling decorated fabrics, furniture, pottery, and other small home items. Wealthy women were frequent patrons of the workshop where they would shop for art to decorate their homes. -
20th Century (United States) - Georgia O’Keeffe (1887 – 1986)
Georgia O’Keeffe was an American modern painter. She met her husband Arthur Stieglitz after she sent a friend some abstract charcoal drawings who then took the drawings to Stieglitz. O’Keeffe was a member of the National Women’s Party and strongly objected to gender interpretation of her work. She believed that her abstract paintings were being misinterpreted by critics and shifted her paintings to more recognizable subject matter, for which she remains known today. -
20th Century (United States) - Dorothea Tanning (1910 – 2012)
Dorothea Tanning was a self-taught American artist. While living in New York she became a commercial artist while working on her own paintings. She was introduced to the owner of the Modern Museum of Art, who immediately offered to show her work and gave her two exhibitions – one in 1944 and another in 1948. In 1942 Tanning met German painter, Max Ernst. He had dropped into her studio while selecting work for Exhibition by 31 Women for the Art of the Century Gallery. -
Late 20th Century / 21st Century - Miriam Schapiro (1923 – 2015)
Along with Judy Chicago, Miriam Schapiro became one of the most important artists within the growing feminist-art scene. In 1967 she began creating hard-edged abstract paintings. Her piece titled Ox (c. 1967) features a hard-edged O at the crossing of an X. The result is of a vaginal shape and Judy Chicago called it “central core” imagery. Even though Schapiro is an important figure in the women artist feminine scene her work is not widely illustrated in art history books. -
Late 20th Century / 21st Century - Judy Chicago (born: 1939)
Judy Chicago emerged onto the feminist art scene while as a graduate student at UCLA. She created abstract forms that were associated or looked like female anatomy parts such as breasts, belly, and vulva. Along with another feminist artist, Miriam Schapiro, she opened an installation in an old house located in a residential neighborhood of Hollywood, called “Womanhouse”. Womanhouse opened in 1972 exhibiting various women artists including Chicago’s Menstruation Bathroom c. 1972.