Thérèse Schwartze and Portrait of a Girl Sun

Therese Schwartze, born on 20 December 1852

Anna Lea Merritt and Eve

'Eve' (1885) by Anna Lea Merritt; Private Collection

Today's painter is unknown to me and is Anna Lea Merritt, born on 13 September 1844, who strangely enough only has a Polish Wikipedia page. You can use the translate button, or click here or here for an English article. Merritt was an American Pre-Raphaelite female painter who went to Europe to study art. By the mid 1870s, she had regular exhibitions at the London Royal Academy. She married her English teacher Henry Merritt in 1877 and quit her career as a result. After his death only three months later, she resumed painting. Her painting Love Locked Out (1889) became the first work by a woman artist to be purchased by the Tate Gallery in 1890. Today's artwork, also known as 'Eve overcome by remorse', has attracted the most attention of her exhibited paintings. It won accolades at the Chicago exhibition in 1893. I think it's beautiful.

Anna Mary Robertson Moses and Country Fair

'Country Fair' (1950) by Anna Mary Robertson Moses; Private Collection?

For today I chose a remarkable American female painter, unknown to me, but very well-known in her home country. She is Anna Mary Robertson Moses, better known as Grandma Moses, born on 7 September 1860. She made her first painting when she was 76 years old. When she died at the age of 101, she had made around 1500 paintings in three decades. Without any formal education, she started painting when she couldn't hold an embroidery needle anymore due to arthritis. A paintbrush was easier to hold. Her paintings are portrayals of homely farm life. Having worked as a hired help herself, she painted from memory and experience. She also painted wintery scenes of ice-skating in the tradition of Dutch and Flemish genre painting. I just read about her life and she must have been a great woman. Lively, witty and sharp-tongued, she remained observant even in her last years. Her joy of painting and her vision of the world is reflected in her work. Until her 101st and last birthday, she still managed to do a little painting almost every day. Credit is due to the art collector, Louis Caldor, who saw her art work in a drugstore and bought all of her paintings as well as the ones that she had finished at home. He recognised her talent, and the next year three of her paintings were included in an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. I want to show you a photo of this remarkable woman, click here. Don't you think she really looks like the world's favourite granny? I really like her paintings. They remind me of the work of Chagall. I also read somewhere that she painted from the top down. First the sky, then the mountains and the trees, then the houses and the cattle, and the people came last. I love her simple reality and the vibrant colours. Very uplifting art.

Lavinia Fontana and Bianca Cappello de Medici

'Bianca Cappello de Medici' (no date found); Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas

Again nothing really exciting to choose from today. Then I came across Lavinia Fontana, an Italian female painter who was born on August 24, 1552. I saw this painting right away and decided that it was good enough. Now, that sounds like I have chosen it by lack of something better. But I honestly like it and when you look closer and see all the details of the woman's garment, then it is beautiful. The lace looks quite sophisticated. The depicted woman is Bianca Cappello, a Venetian noblewoman, who was the mistress and later on the second wife of Francesco I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. She was famous for her beauty and intellect. The boy on the left is Bianca's son. The painter of this portrait, Lavinia Fontana, was trained by her father Propero Fontana, who was a leading painter in the Mannerist tradition in their native city of Bologna. She painted mainly portraits and religious scenes, but it is her portraiture that she is known for. I couldn't find a date for today's painting but I read somewhere that the portrait might have been posthumous because Bianca Cappello died in 1587.

Amélie Helga Lundahl and The Garden Girl

'The Garden Girl' (1885) by Amélie Helga Lundahl; Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki

Today I struggled a bit to come up with a painting but then found female Finnish painter Amélie Helga Lundahl, born on 26 May 1850 and died on 20 August 1914. She attended art school in Stockholm and Helsinki and was one of the first Finnish women to study at the Académie Julien in Paris. After spending time in Bretagne in the 1870s, she had acquired a taste for the outdoors. She settled in Bretagne later and painted peasant themes. It appears that the painting that I chose for today is her most significant work and dates from her Bretagne period. I couldn't find much about the painting but if you read Finnish (or a very bad translation), then click here. I like this painting and it reminds me of the many Realist painters who depict peasant themes.

Judith Leyster and The Proposition

'The Proposition' (1631) by Judith Leyster; Mauritshuis, The Hague

Judith Leyster, born on 28 July 1609, was one of the few female painters of the Dutch Golden Age, at least still known to us. She painted genre scenes, portraits and still lifes and was influenced by Frans Hals and the Utrecht Caravaggisti. She was very succesful in her day and one of the few female members of the Haarlem Painters' Guild. She also took on students of her own. The story goes that she sued Hals succesfully for a breach of ethics after he stole one of her students. The artwork I chose for today is probably Leyster's most well-known painting. 'The Proposition' is a genre scene from everyday life. Leyster depicted a man offering money to a woman who is doing needlework. The man's seductive smile, the coins in his hand and the intimate candlelight might suggest that the man is offering money for love. This was a popular theme in Dutch painting. But nothing else in this work of art indicates that this might be a brothel scene (no cheerfulness, revealing clothing, hidden sexual symbols, etc.). The woman doesn't seem to be interested in what the man has to offer. Even more, she ignores him and doesn't look up from her needlework. It could have been just a domestic scene if it weren't for the coins in the man's hand. Leyster might have wanted to show the woman's virtue and strong character with this ambiguous work. I think this is a great painting from a great feminist painter who lived in a time when women were suppressed and uneducated.

Artemisia Gentileschi and Self-portrait as the Allegory of Painting

Due to my stay and volunteer work in Peru for most of June and July, I won't have time to write but I will continue to post a painting a day. I may add text upon returning to Amsterdam. I hope you will still visit to see the daily painting. 

Mary Cassatt and Young Woman Reading

'Young woman reading' (1876) by Mary Cassatt; The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

It's incredible how many paintings exist depicting women reading. Here is another one by Mary Cassatt, born on 22 May 1844. She was an American Impressionist painter who was specialised in painting children. I never liked her paintings very much but I guess I didn't really like the paintings of children. Seeing all the images of her paintings together, there is enough left for me to like. Cassatt became one of the leading American painters at a time that the art world was predominantly male. She studied art both in the States and Europe. In 1871, she spent eight months in Parma, Italy, doing an extensive study on the Italian painter Correggio. I read that the result can be seen in her work, notably in her paintings of children. Apparently they owed much to Correggio's paintings of Madonna and child. I have to tell you that if I wouldn't have known this, I would never have guessed. But still, it makes you look at her paintings of children in a different way. Correggio was not the only painter who had inspired Cassatt. She met Edgar Degas in 1877 and he became the greatest influence on her artistic career. They had a stormy and productive relationship that lasted 40 years but they weren't romantically involved. Although there had been speculations. It was Degas who suggested she'd join the Impressionist exhibition of 1877. By 1880, Cassatt was an acknowledged member of the Impressionist group and exhibited regularly in their shows, the only American painter who succeeded in doing this. Today's painting is one of her many depictions of a woman reading. I love the image and the colours!

Evelyn De Morgan and The Prisoner

'The Prisoner' (1907) by Evelyn De Morgan; De Morgan Centre, London

I like discovering Pre-Raphaelite painters unknown to me and so far I hadn't come across a female one. But today I discovered Evelyn De Morgan, born on 30 August 1855 and died on 2 May 1919. De Morgan was part of the circle of Pre-Raphaelites that included Edward Burne-Jones and it is evident that she was influenced by his work. But in addition to the themes and subjects that the Pre-Raphaelites are known for, De Morgan focused more on allegorical and symbolic themes and subjects. The painting shown here of a woman imprisoned, is a sharp commentary on the position of women during the Victorian and Edwardian eras.

Eva Gonzalès and Morning Awakening

'Morning Awakening' (1876) by Eva Gonzalès; Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen

Today's painter Eva Gonzalès, born on April 19, 1849, is unknown to me and one of the few female painters who were part of the circle of Impressionists. She was born into a family of artists, her father a writer and her mother a musician. She became Édouard Manet's only formal student and model. Although she never exhibited with the Impressionists in Paris, she is considered to be one of the group because of her painting style. She was strongly influenced by Manet at first, but after 1872, she began to develop her own personal style. There were several paintings that I could have chosen for this post, but this painting of a morning awakening stood out because of the light and the peaceful scene. Gonzalès portrayed her sister Jeanne in this painting, a lovely woman who just woke up and seems to be daydreaming. 

Ellen Day Hale and Morning News

'Morning News' (1905) by Ellen Day Hale; Private Collection

I came across an image of this painting on another art blog, looked up the artist on Wikipedia and saw that she was born and died on the 11th of February (1855-1940), so double perfect for this post. Her name is Ellen Day Hale and she was an American painter who studied in Paris. I could have chosen other artists for this post but I haven't done a post on an American painter yet and I also like to choose paintings by women artists. Nothing much to say, really, other than that I like the painting. 

Harriet Backer By Lamplight

'By Lamplight' (1890) by Harriet Backer; The Rasmus Meyer Collection, The Bergen Art Museum, Bergen 

I was extremely fortunate today. I hadn't found an artist yet for this post and was flipping through the book "1001 paintings you must see before you die" and I saw this beautiful painting by Harriet Backer, a Norwegian painter that I had never heard of before. I googled her name and it was almost a shock to find out that she was born on the 21st of January, 1845. How lucky can you get! Harriet Backer was a leader among female artists both in Scandinavia and other European countries. I chose the same painting as I found in the book although I could have easily picked another one since I like her paintings. 'By Lamplight' stands out because of, not surprisingly, the beautiful light. It also breathes an air of loneliness. Imagine how this painting must look in real life. Never been to Norway. Apparently I have to see it before I die.

Berthe Morisot and the Woman Chasing Butterflies

'Chasing Butterflies' (1874) by Berthe Morisot; Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Berthe Morisot is well-known among art lovers because she was one of the few great female Impressionist painters. Born on January 14, 1841, she was a member of the group of Impressionist painters in Paris and married the brother of Édouard Manet, thus becoming his sister-in-law. Manet made a portrait of her in 1872, called 'Berthe Morisot with a bouquet of violets'. I had contemplated using that portrait for this post but then, that would be a work of art by Manet and I wanted to show you one of Morisot's fine paintings. So here it is!