This blog post can not adequately cover how women are depicted over centuries in art masterpieces. After all, PhD dissertations and books have been churned out on narrow topics for just one artist and their paintings or just one country’s century- long treatment of women in art.
I’m just going to take a stroll with highlights of art in galleries and museums we’ve encountered. It’s been predictable, sometimes pleasantly surprising, curious or just shocking.
Saint, Courtesan, Rich Family Member or Simply Not There
First, it helps to understand historic and at times, religious context when looking a collection of paintings and sculptures. Not surprisingly, many great European cathedrals and churches where some great art is preserved, there are very few female images. Except for the Virgin Mary, especially in Catholic dominant countries. Or Mary Magdelene, who has been historically viewed wrongly as a prostitute, now was perhaps Jesus’ ally as an independent woman acting on her own with financial means.¹
In dimly lit cathedrals, there are many stories in stained glass and paintings, where women are often non-existent, not the central focus or lost in the crowd. When the occasional nun or rich benefactoress (usually someone’s wife or daughter) in medieval or Renaissance artwork, it’s a pleasant jolt.
Woman as Sinner, Evil Slayer or Mother-Leader
While in Dijon’s Musee des Beaux-Arts in France, it was shocking to see gruesome paintings of a woman flogged, lowered in scalding water or decapitated. Obviously these were stories of women who were deemed to be evil and beyond forgiveness. So end their lives publicly to teach the crowds “a
lesson”. There was nothing in such paintings to show anyone was trying to save the woman. One wonders if these women just had a dalliance on the side (I didn’t see men get executed for adultery, in paintings.), expressed an unpopular, independent opinion or challenged authority of the day.
On the other extreme, were occasional paintings of an artistocratic woman or Virgin Mary who literally towered over her dwarf supplicants. There are some rare paintings where a woman is heroically slaying Evil with a sword. Evil is usually depicted as an ugly monster.
Male Artist and Women Central to His Life
When we were in Seattle Museum of Art, for special exhibit of American Andrew Wyeth’s masterful paintings, I couldn’t help but wonder the pain that his wife must have felt, for seeing the nude paintings of his red-haired lover, Helga, a
neighbour. Wyeth depicts internal domestic chaos in a painting of houses by the roiling ocean and bird feathers tossed by the wind, as if after a bird struggle. In contrast, Canadian Alex Coville’s paintings of his wife, by contrast, are loving, thoughtful and reflective in his painterly touch.
Though I may have imposed my own interpetations of artwork I saw, there are historic compelling reasons why in Europe and some great Asian art, women as the central focus of great artwork up to the 19th century, tends to be rarer or simply focused very narrowly on women: of higher socio-economic class, as a sexual partner or their association with a man of power and influence.
Incomplete Story in Artwork: Right to Vote
Even the innocuous statute tableau in Calgary, featuring famous Canadian suffragettes who lobbied successfully for women to vote in 1921, needs to be viewed correctly. The right to vote for women was only for white women.
Chinese-Canadian women didn’t vote until 1947, when Parliament of Canada granted the right to all Chinese-Canadians after much lobbying by Chinese-Canadian war veterans whose comrades lost their lives in WW II. The Japanese-Canadian women were able to vote later in 1949 –long after disbandment of the Japanese-Canadians from internment camps during WWII. First Nations or native Indian women, didn’t get the right to vote in Canadian federal and provincial elections, until 1961.
I still appreciate the art, even if gruesome or it’s only a narrow lens into a tiny fraction how people lived or what they believed, centuries or just 70 years ago. Just knowing more of the story behind the painting or the omission of women, will reveal the artist’s biases or desires.
Interesting Reading
¹Bernstein, Alon and Isaac Scharf. “The Real Face of Mary Magdalene”: Why the Long-Maligned Disciple is Seen in New Light.” In National Post, Mar. 30, 2018.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. “Women & the Right to Vote: An Important Clarification.” Feb. 26, 2013.
Cycle Write Blog 
Super post Jean!
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Appreciate your comment, WFB
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Jean I admit I had not given the topic of women in art much thought so I truly enjoyed taking this art walk with you.
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Hope at least you saw something abit unexpected. Ever since I saw those paintings in Dijon awhile ago, I started to reflect what I had seen over the years.
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It is interesting to note that nudity was a common depiction in some of these forms of art.
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Much of the religious art does not feature nudity at all except for portrayals of Adam and Eve. When one looks at the whole body of great art in Europe and even Asia, there’s not that much nude paintings of women prior to 19th century. We might tend to assume top nude sculptures of Greek and Roman goddesses were the norm. But just here and there.
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I think the “sinner women” section is not sinners, but martyrs! Notice that all those women have the saint halo on their heads. They were probably killed for their beliefs.
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I only used the term for other impressions of women in all areas of paintings. History liked to blame some women for all sorts of “evils”.
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What a fantastic post, Jean! I am so behind reading the blogs I subscribe to that I was tempted to hit the delete button. So glad I scanned the list before! Yeah, women are the problem, right? We are half of the population and always the one blamed for everything that doesn’t go right. I don’t pose as a victim at all, but our depiction through the ages has barely evolved. Being from France and raised as a Catholic I know something about the topic. Plus my name is really close to Eve, the biggest sinner of all times. Kids at school called me Eve when they wanted to be mean, and as much as I tried to think that she was smarter than Adam it felt as an insult.
Anyway, it is a great, great post.
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How intriguing about the kids during your childhood /teens and how they insulted you. It would be amazing many North American children would even dream up of that type of insult which shows probably increased secularization in 21st century plus multiplicity of different religions …at least in various parts of North America (not all). I felt it was useful to expose particularily to a North American audience and for anyone who doesn’t even look at liturgical art, some European medieval and Renaissance art examples on depiction of women.
If nothing else, to encourage people to look at this artwork more closely and find certain themes. We can learn something no matter how old the theme may be.
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It was a really good post. And your photos are always gorgeous.
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Ooooo. Definitely dissertation material here! Women in paintings over the centuries! I’m such a Klimt fan that I was secretly hoping you would have stumbled upon his work. So feminist. Hahahaha. Well, his Judith is holding a decapitated head of her lover (?) so maybe that’s going tooooo far?
I’m glad you brought up context though, so important when we look at these works of art.
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I only know of 1 Klimt painting. The Judith reference sounds familiar. I would have to research this..since I thought in previous Rennaissance painting, there was a scorned/jilted lover with the same illustration… Or maybe am remembering something else. What I saw in Dijon museum illustrating the fate of the “sinner” woman got me reflecting on what I’ve seen over the years. Do you look at art in the countries where you’ve worked..when you have time?
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Yes! We’ve sought out art museums when they are available. After all the BF is an artist with a MA in Art, and I took art history classes in college. So we both have that in common.
What’s interesting about Asian cultures (at least in my small part of the world) is that there are not many major art museums. Usually, there are small ones. And the art is “traditional” or with a “traditional spin” on it. There is a history of the “same look” if that makes sense.
And so you really can’t compare it to the rich, varied and diverse art styles and history of say “Western” culture.
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It may well be there’s lack of money to invest on comprehensive museums and preservation in general. As for art, it may a question of time, meaning a really long trajectory of time before more diverse artistic expression occurs. But then again, there’s a love for Western stuff or stuff to appeal to tourists/others who have money to buy art and have no interest in something radically different in expression from your corner of Asia. Some may want to stick to buying only narrow genre of artistic expression.
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I think appreciation for art shows another level of humanity and societies. It’s that idea that after we’ve got all our doctors and engineers we want to create a world where artists are equally respected.
But you bring up a good point, I think much of the art that SE Asia has gotten attention for is its traditional stuff, so hence, more of it.
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What a highly intriguing post, Jean, complete with thoughtful historical perspective– thank you. Of course, the image that’s going to stick in my mind is the bored cat in the handstand painting!! Ah, well. Cats– what can you do?? 😸
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Thx for dropping by, Mark. Good to see you. For all the great art I’ve seen so far, it was a worthwhile post for a blog post. It morphed in ways I didn’t quite predict initially. Must be from looking at all those photos in my digital collection..:)
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