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27 Apr The Scandalous Life of Duchess of Berry

Posted at 03:24h in art history, Metropolitan Museum, Shady Ladies, Women's History by jenni

The scandalous Duchess of Berry was born as Marie Louise Élisabeth d’Orleans on 20 August 1695 at the Palace of Versailles to Philippe II, Duke of Orléans and Françoise-Marie de Bourbon, who was a legitimized daughter of Louis XIV of France. She was near death several...

09 Nov Early Female Artists

Posted at 18:49h in art history, Metropolitan Museum, Women's History by Rena Tobey

For almost ten years, I've been researching and writing about American women artists working before 1945, with particular interest in resuscitating their careers. Everything about these women fascinates me--their struggle to become professionals in a world that doesn't see women that way; the ways they...

21 Aug Painter Mary Ann Alabaster

Posted at 09:49h in art history, Metropolitan Museum, nasty women by Professor Andrew Lear

One of the most important traditions among women painters is the self-portrait in which the artist claims her status as an artist. This is a 19th century English example, by the painter Mary Ann Alabaster, who shows you herself painting a portrait of herself (a self-portrait within a self-portrait) surrounded by her works in different genres.

21 Aug A transitional moment in the status of women in the arts

Posted at 09:29h in art history, Shady Ladies, Women's History by Professor Andrew Lear

This picture shows us a transitional moment in the status of women in the arts. We see a group of women studying in an artist's studio, which is of course relatively modern, as there were no studios where groups of women studied before the mid-18th century, even in Paris.

31 Aug The feminist concept of the “male gaze”

Posted at 17:27h in art history, courtesans, Metropolitan Museum, nasty women by Professor Andrew Lear

The feminist concept of the "male gaze" is useful in art criticism. The concept originally comes from film studies, where it is used to discuss the fact that men traditionally controlled the camera, of which women were an object. Men certainly also controlled the brush...

16 Jul Shady Ladies Featured In O, The Oprah Magazine!

Posted at 00:43h in art history, Metropolitan Museum, Shady Ladies by Professor Andrew Lear

We are so grateful for being included on the 'Gratitude Meter' 5 Things We're Smiling About in this month's issue of O, The Oprah Magazine! When it comes to Shady Ladies Tours, Oprah exemplifies the kind of ambitious, glass ceiling breaking woman that our tours are all about!

25 Aug Meet Lady Emma Hamilton A Woman Of Great Beauty

Posted at 12:00h in Shady Ladies, Women's History by Professor Andrew Lear

Emma Hamilton The way from social obscurity to social stardom has traditionally been even narrower than the strait gate and narrow way to salvation. However, iconic looks, talent, intelligence, and a heaping helping of golden luck have been known to buy one’s way out and up. Emma Hamilton was born in 1765, among the working poor. Ordinarily, the nearest such a girl would have come to the aristocracy would have been cleaning up after them. She was working as a servant in London at twelve; she moved on to a brothel, then an establishment known as the Temple of Health and Hymen. Her first protector was one Sir Harry Featherstonebaugh. Supposedly she helped entertain his companions by dancing naked on his table. She attracted the notice of the Hon. Charles Greville, nephew of Sir William Hamilton. Charmed, Greville commissioned George Romney to paint portraits of her and make the public aware of the iconic face. Romney became quite obsessed with her and produced numerous portraits that convey both the heat of his interest and his subject’s charisma. At nineteen she was also painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds in a characteristic pose: a mischievous, meditative look over her shoulder, right hand delicately fingering her cheek.

courtesan in the Yoshiwara, Tokyo's pleasure quarter

02 Aug Yoshiwara, the ‘pleasure quarter’ of the city of Edo

Posted at 19:09h in Shady Ladies, Women's History by Professor Andrew Lear

A couple of weeks ago I took a meander around the Met to see what new stuff was hanging--and what did I find? Lots of new courtesans! In particular, there is now a whole gallery of Japanese paintings of beautiful women--including a number of courtesans, such as this woman in a scroll from the 1780s by Isoda Koryusai. This painting seems to show the main street of the Yoshiwara, the 'pleasure quarter' of the city of Edo (modern Tokyo). A courtesan is promenading with her two assistants (or perhaps apprentices). She is the height of fashion, or perhaps overdone—as was apparently typical of these women—wearing multiple layers of elaborate kimonos, and the huge clogs which were typical of courtesans--clogs which made it impossible to walk naturally (a custom that reminds me of Chinese foot-binding).

30 Jun Sammu Ramat Empress Regnant Assyria

Posted at 19:55h in Shady Ladies, Women's History by Professor Andrew Lear

In Rossini’s opera about her, Queen Semiramide of Assyria walks onstage right into a problem: The aristocratic politician who helped her poison her husband and usurp his throne wants her to fulfill her end of the bargain and nominate him to rule the nation. Payment due!

30 Jun Spanish Opera Singer Maria Malibran

Posted at 07:51h in Shady Ladies, Women's History by Professor Andrew Lear

Maria Malibran entered the world in 1808 with an uncommonly interesting backstory and set of genes. Her father, the famous tenor Manuel Garcia, was probably half-Romany; her Spanish mother was a more minor opera singer. Garcia was a spectacular singer, a brilliant teacher, and a manic brute. Determined to make his daughter into one of the planet’s most brilliant vocalists, he battered and terrorized her regularly in service to this aim. Did she start life with a miraculous voice? She had one by the time she made her debut at a London concert at 16, just old enough to be a sophomore in a postmodern American high school. By that time, she already had a range from E below middle C to high C. At 17, she made her operatic debut as Rosina in The Barber of Seville to great acclaim.