21 Aug Marie Baltshirtseff: In The Studio
Marie Bashkirtseff
The self-portrait is probably the most interesting tradition among women artists. Often women artists portray themselves as artists, or rather claim their status as an artist though self-portraiture; paintings of other women artists painting are a related tradition, involving a kind of vicarious self-portraiture. This painting gives us both sides of the tradition: the artist, Marie Baltshirtseff, is in the foreground, but we also see a whole studio of women art students.
It also shows us a key space in the history of women in the arts: the Académie Julian, one of the only places in 19th century Paris that gave rigorous training to women artists and consequently the alma mater of many women painters, such as Cecelia Beaux (but also non-French artists in general, e.g. John Singer Sargent). Though the Académie Julian allowed women to study nudes (at least semi-nudes), it was considered too scandalous for male and female students to paint nudes together; as a result, we see an all-female class in this scene, painting a semi-clothed boy posing as St. John the Baptist. Interested in the history women artists? Come on the Nasty Women tour of the Metropolitan!
