The Story of Women and Art

These are names of Renaissance art we should know. There’s an obvious reason why we don’t. Sculptor Properzia de Rossi who created a work so perfect, her male detractors destroyed her, the first female court painter Sofonisba Anguissola, forced to masquerade as a lady in waiting and paper cutter Joanna Koerten who sold more than Rembrandt. Times have changed, so why is their work still in storage?

An artist denied has no choice but to be unconventional. In an 18th century fizzing with change, these are the women who found fresh ways to be creative: the first female celebrity fashion designer who styled icon of the age Marie Antoinette, a teacup portrait artist, and a servant with skills about her status. This is how female ingenuity built, decorated and clothed this shiny new world.

When the world pushed them, they pushed back. These are the women who didn’t reflect the world through their art, they remade it - Georgia O’Keeffe, avant garde interior designer Karin Larsson and Gertrude Jekyll, one of history’s most celebrated garden designers, transformed their world and their place within it. How stagnant would the 20th century artworld have been without them?