Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920

Stunning exhibition at Tate Britain looking at professional women artists in Britain from the 16th to 20th centuries.

The show told the story simply and clearly letting the artists’ work and stories speak for themselves without being too preachy. I have done lots of courses reinstating women artists in the canon of art history but there were lots of people mentioned in this show who I didn’t know. Around every corner seemed to be an extraordinary new fact such as that Reynolds had a sister who was an artist, Elizabeth, who kept house for him and copied his work.

There were familiar faces too and I did a little dance in front of the Vanessa Bell and it is always good to see the Artemisia Gentileschi self-portrait from the Royal Collection. Talking Royal Collection they also have the newly identified picture by her of “Susanna and the Elders” which I’d been wanting to see.

The new names are too numerous to mention and I have a lot of Googling to do. I’ll just mention one. The man in the pink velvet suit is the only known work by professional artist Mary Block. Having already bartered down the fee the sitter refused to pay as he said taking payment would damage her reputation and called her a slut in a letter to his cousin. You could hear the intakes of breath as people read the label.

Closes 13 October 2024


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