Primarily art history has always pampered the names of great male artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Pablo Picasso, and Vincent Van Gogh to name a few. However, some women artists have blessed the expansive world of art with some incredible masterpieces.
While women in arts didn’t receive the accolades in the past like their male contemporaries, at present they are much revered for bringing about a miraculous change in terms of the visual history of the world. Therefore, we have rounded up the 5 most popular female artists successfully earned a huge name in the world of art despite their hardships.
1. Lavinia Fontana
Bolognese woman painter of the 16th century, Lavinia Fontana is chiefly celebrated for her portrait paintings. She belonged to the Mannerist school and was one of the first few female artistsin Western Europe to carry out and accomplish massive, publicly commissioned figure paintings. In fact, they turned out to be her main source of income to make her ends meet.
Having crafted over 135 worldly oil paintings, her style and incredible body of work contained various classifications of art. From single and group portraits to church altar to and narrative and historic scenes, she is known to be an adept artist of various subjects.
She was a small painter who mainly practiced painting in the Mannerist style which was taught to her by her own father. During the late 1570s, she came to become a great women painter. Interestingly, Fontana was the first-ever woman painter to paint female nudes and use live nude female models.
Moreover, what most people do not know is that she was not just commissioned to make portraits, but also paintings on religious and mythological subjects, which at times included female nudes. Self-portrait at the Harpsichord and the beautiful Gozzadini Family (1584) are some of her most famous works.
2. Mary Cassatt
Mary Cassatt was a leading American woman painter during the Impressionist movement of the late 1800s. Mary Cassatt’s style was utterly unique as her aim was not just to produce a particular type of subject matter, but also to play around with avant-garde techniques.
As a matter of fact, her painting, Breakfast in Bed, currently on view at the Met in gallery 769, proves the same and showcases Cassatt’s excellence in handling the technique of using powdered colors and aesthetic factors.
Also, Mary Cassatt’s incredible boldness of handling complementary colors can be witnessed in most of her paintings like Mother and Child. Besides being a solid woman of substance in arts, she was a great influential womanwho used to financially sponsor fellow female artists and motivate wealthy Americans to encourage the fledgling movement for buying artwork.
3. Berthe Morisot
Berthe Morisot was one among the prominent French female artists who showcased a wide range of subjects, be it landscapes, still life, domestic scenes or portraits.
She first executed her work in the reputable state-run art show, the Salon, in 1864 where she managed to earn for herself a regular position for the next decade. She was not just a substantial woman in arts but also a government officer mounting to be a great influential woman.
Berthe Morisot’s prolific body of work mostly encompassed bright colors and varied kinds of brushwork which adds more to the spontaneity of her work. Her sophisticated style of painting portrays natural light with delicate brush strokes. In her famous painting, Two Sisters on a Couch, the colors seem to be beautifully merging with minimal harsh lines diminished by a lack of contrasting tones.
It is said that her actual style of painting was unplanned. Also, mostly all of her paintings seem to be depicting the precious moments of her daughter’s growth.
4. Rosa Bonheur
Rosa Bonheur, originally named Marie-Rosalie Bonheurwas a prominent French painter and sculptor widely made famous for the exceptional precision and realism found in her paintings that featured animals.
Primarily, her painting style spoke of the relationships amongst nature, art, and society. Rosa Bonheur regards all her painting subjects equally, no matter what subject she chooses to work on. She later executed two of her paintings, ‘Goats and Sheep’ and ‘Rabbits Nibbling Carrots’ at the Salon and these are deemed to be few of her most famous works and surprisingly.
It might take you by surprise that her works sold so well that she was able to buy an estate with a château in the year 1860.
5. Suzanne Valadon
Yet another influential woman is Suzanne Valadon, originally named Marie-clémentine Valadon, who was well-known for her portrayal of solid figures and bold usage of colors.
The subjects she touched remained to be mostly nudes, still-life, portraits, flowers and landscapes that are valued for their incredible composition and handling of bright colors. However, she was best acknowledged for her portrayal of candid female nudes that showcased women’s bodies from the viewpoint of a woman.
Valadon’s utterly colored portrayals of female bathers and floral still life artworks are seemingly known to be some of her most admired works. She is held in high regard mostly for having produced some strong, pioneering and many a time, controversial figure paintings of female nudes.
In fact, Valadon miraculously altered the genre of the female nude through her style of painting, by offering an intuitive expression of women’s experiences.
Décor the Galley
It is indeed very true that there is not a field left where women have not tried their hands. Despite the hardships these influential women faced, they left their comfort zone and created masterpieces that are going to inspire the generations to come.
