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Not Intended for the Public: A Look at Amateur Women Painters - Page 2

© Jessica Cresseveur

By the middle of the nineteenth century, middle- and upper-class housewives was admonished to not aspire to excel in any one pursuit. Mrs. Ellis' widely read Family Monitor and Domestic Guide advised, "[t]o be able to do a great many things tolerably well, is of infinite more value to a woman, than to be able to excel in any one."(6) Linda Nochlin explains that such advice aimed to prevent women from becoming detracted from traditional domestic activities and to "protect" men from competition in the public arena.(7) Remember, amateur pursuits were supposed to complement traditional feminine duties, not replace them. However, advice to refrain from pursuing an area of expertise presented a double-edged sword. Nochlin further explains that, just as such advice was intended to protect men, it also gave them room to ridicule "well-rounded" women for not being seriously committed to their work.(8)

Despite such lower opinions of amateur women artists, many examples of their work survives. One museum that houses art by amateurs is the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont. Paintings appear on such items as dressers and jewellery boxes, as well as more familiar surfaces like canvas and wood panel. Some of the artists' names are listed, while others remain anonymous. However, despite this example of preservation, many amateur works (just as professional works) have been lost, whether as a result of misplacement or outright neglect. Given contemporary attitudes toward amateur women artists, the missing works may have been seen as unimportant.

As one can imagine, tracing works by amateur women artists is more difficult than tracing the works of the professionals. Regardless of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century attitudes toward these women and their work, it is important that we, as twenty-first century art historians and art lovers, acknowledge them and make an effort to see that they are included in the mainstream canon. After all, whether or not they received money for their work, they still produced art, and every example helps us to better understand the past.

Further Reading

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Notes

(1) Ann Bermingham, "The Aesthetics of Ignorance: The Accomplished Woman in the Culture of Connoisseurship." The Oxford Art Journal 16:2 (1993): 4.

(2) Whitney Chadwick, Women, Art, and Society 2nd ed. (London, 1996): 150.

(3) Ibid., 151-52.

(4) Miniatures in oil paint were usually produced by professionals.

(5) Ibid., 148. As an aside, several professional male painters, including Jean-Baptiste Isabey, who studied under Jacques-Louis David, also produced miniatures. However, they were not subject to the same accusations of intellectual lacking.

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