How I am looking forward to the upcoming exhibit, Women Artists in Paris, 1850–1900 at the Clark Art Institute! I am fond of saying that writing historical fiction forces a novelist to ask different questions from those of historians, even cultural historians. For instance, where did a woman Read More
Picturing a World
Étienne Azambre
May 25, 2018
Correction: Thanks to a reader, Daisy, I am happy (but embarrassed) to correct a blooper: Azambre was male, not female. Luckily I didn't say anything stupid about "the female gaze" in this post; and the suggestion that the religious wing of commercial art might be useful to fiction stands. Thanks again, Daisy!
At a lecture in advance of the Clark Art Institute’s upcoming show, Women Artists in Paris, 1850–1900 (June 9–Spetember 3, 2018) I learned about this painting by Étienne Azambre (1859–1933). Azambre was an almost exact contemporary of the real Jeanette and studied at the Académie Julian from 1879 to 1882 in the studio of Adolphe William Bouguereau and Tony Robert-Fleury, where I place my fictional Jeanette. Wish I had known about her in time! Read More
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Marie Cazin’s quarried stone
May 7, 2018
Blog post tip: Stone Yard in a post on Marie Cazin at Beside the Easel brought touch and texture to mind: this is an easier sense to put into words than smell—though wouldn’t it be good to capture the smell as well as the feel of rough-cut stone in the sun? Read More
Ladies painting a bull
April 8, 2018
Blog post alert: James Gurney’s post on Von Hayek’s Animal-Painting Academy is the source of this photo of women artists en plein air. Besides the art-historical angle (and the clothes), I love the farmers in the distance watching. What story do you suppose they might tell?! Read More
Romani follow-up
April 3, 2018
As a follow-up to yesterday’s post on Juana Romani, here’s a drawing of her by the prolific painter, sculptor, and Art Nouveau designer Victor Prouvé. I love the informality of the portfolio propped on a chair—not to mention the formality of the hat.
Prouvé was as new to me as she was. The best article about him turned up by a quick Google search is Victor Prouvé : un artiste transversal (in French). Read More
Prouvé was as new to me as she was. The best article about him turned up by a quick Google search is Victor Prouvé : un artiste transversal (in French). Read More
Juana Romani
April 2, 2018
I wish I had known about the artist’s model and painter, Juana Romani when I was writing Where the Light Falls. She actually posed for Carolus-Duran and studied with his associate, Jacques Henner—although, maybe it’s just as well Read More
Sarah Stilwell Weber
March 28, 2018
Sarah Stilwell Weber is known primarily for her illustration of children, which fits nicely with my heroine Mattie who works in children’s publishing; but I have selected this Collier cover because it is so richly striking. Weber studied with Howard Pyle and was associated with his famous female students, the Red Rose Girls. This picture suggests to me that she also kept up with larger art world and knew the work of Gustav Klimt. It’s always a mistake to think that creative people are limited to whatever work makes them famous or pays the bills!
For more about Weber, click here and here. Read More
For more about Weber, click here and here. Read More
Female comic book illustrators
February 16, 2018
Website alert: Golly, a whole new dimension for Mattie Palmer’s world of publishing (and suffagism): Women Who Conquered the Comics World. Via Two Nerdy History Girls.
Sisterhood and creativity
January 20, 2018
I try to keep these posts short and connect you to something you might use. This one is longer because, on this anniversary of the Trump inauguration, I’m pulling together several things to help myself move through and beyond the grimy, depressing aspects of the present day to something life-enhancing. I hope it helps you, too.
First, sisterhood: Reports on the Women’s March redux is enheartening. In the era of #MeToo, it’s good to focus on women’s worth—enlightened male companions welcome. We must also remember that it’s not just sexual predation that is an issue. I was interested to read in the January 12, 2018, Guardian, that “[a]fter 2017’s Cambridge Companion to Irish Poets included only four women, 250 writers have agreed to boycott anthologies, conferences and festivals where women are not fairly represented.” Read More
First, sisterhood: Reports on the Women’s March redux is enheartening. In the era of #MeToo, it’s good to focus on women’s worth—enlightened male companions welcome. We must also remember that it’s not just sexual predation that is an issue. I was interested to read in the January 12, 2018, Guardian, that “[a]fter 2017’s Cambridge Companion to Irish Poets included only four women, 250 writers have agreed to boycott anthologies, conferences and festivals where women are not fairly represented.” Read More
Pre-Raphaelite women artists
December 11, 2017
Blog tip: This montage of paintings by Kate Bunce, Evelyn de Morgan, Marie Spartali Stillman, Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale, Emma Sandys, and Joanna Mary Boyce heads The art of creating a life, a post at Terri Windling’s Myth and Moor blog. Her primary focus in the post is another woman, Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon, whose life would have been an inspiration to my characters, Jeanette Palmer (for her art) and Mattie Palmer (for activism in the woman’s suffrage movement). Read More