In medieval Europe, most people were making a living from the land they lived on in rural communities. Peasant women were responsible for food preparation, child rearing and tending to the livestock. Additionally, they also worked in the fields harvesting, baked and worked in textile manufacturing. Urban women had similar responsibilities. Biblical texts ofter dictated a woman’s place througthout the Middle Ages. During the Middle Ages, churches allowed women to exercise some power and hold positions with great responsbility, such as abbesses of convents. Although some women enjoyed this type of power, many women, and worth noting men, did not and were forced into arranged marriages. As you can see, the only two choices available to women were either marry or become a nun.
Women have been creating art for centuries and continue to be integral to the institution of art in the form of collectors, patrons, or contributors such as art historians. Gender biases and difficulty selling their work is just some of the challenges women artists have faced and continue to face. Unfortunately, only a small number of women have found their way into the tales of the greatest artists. Even these women’s success was attributed to her husband as an overseer and supporter. Factors such as women being denied an education, art training, and men who believed women to be inferior are why women were excluded from art history.
In the beginning of the 19th century, a woman’s role mainly consisted of managing the home and their lives were still severely restricted. However, many women found deep and meaningful friendships that established a purpose and provided them with a much needed identity separate from the home. The second half of the 19th century found women struggling to support themselves, while working in horrible conditions, in the wake of men unable to support them and the draw on men by the Civil War. Beginning in 1857, changes in divorce, property, and matrimony, “were milestones on the way to legal protection for women outside of marriage” (Chadwick 177) which paved the way for further reform for women. However, women artists still struggled to gain access to formal art training schools until women’s art school were found in Britain and America. Those women who desired to be taught at male art schools faced ridicule backlash which lead some women artists to campaign for “women’s education, employment, property rights, and suffrage” (Chadwick 179-180) and access to the male Royal Academy School. Women supported each other work and their desire to change the terms of what defines femininity. Male artists painted women as care-givers and nurturers which stressed their role in the private sector.
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| Edith Hayllar, Feeding the Swans 1889. artnet.com |
Ann Bluden was another artist who brought attention to the plight of women. Her painting The Seamstress depicts the deplorable conditions of an overworked and underpaid laborer. The laborer is forced to produce fine hand made clothes for wealthy customers. This painting catches her in a moment of desparation, praying for a better way of life.
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| Anna Blunden. The Seamstress. 1854. wordpress.com |
A trailblazing artists, Elizabeth Thompson chose to paint subjects that where restricted to male artists – images of war and soldiers. Her amazing painting, Calling the Roll After an Engagement 1874 depicts the grim duty of roll-call after a battle. The realism and details of this painting supassed the limitation that had been placed on females. He attention to details and lead many to believe that she had served in some capacity in the military thus giving her first hand knowledge of this duty. Sadly, she was unable to pursue her work fully because of the constraints of domestic life and was forced to create when time and duties allowed.
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| Elizabeth Thompson, Calling the Roll After an Engagement. 1874. wordpress.com |
“Renaissance Man” thought it would be dangerous if females learned to read or write” (Guerrilla Girls page 31), from being defined as being weaker physically and intellectually to being expected to follow imposed rules and standards. Many male and female roles in the 1900’s could be seen as offensive if judged by current standards. The separate sphere’s that men and women occupied was a major issue that needed to be addressed to lift the limits on women’s education and contributions that includes works of art. As Rosa Bonheur so “eloquently” said, “I have no patience for women who ask permission to think” (Guerrilla Girls page 48). It’s becoming painfully clear that women need a voice and freedom of expression to think and act with passion and emotion without having to ask for permission or fear of scorn.
By: Dorothy DeFrank
Works Cited
Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. 4th ed. New York, N.Y.: Thames and Hudson, 1990. Print.
The Guerrilla Girls’ Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. New York: Penguin, 1998. Print.
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