Royalists to Romantics: Women Artists in the Age of Revolution

In 18th century Paris, the most influential artistic space was the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture (“The Academy”). It controlled both education and access to the art world, and throughout the 18th century, its leading members adopted theories about what constituted great art – and great artists. These theories advanced the idea that women did not have the intellectual capacity to produce worthwhile art, and prevented them from the necessary education to advance in the Academy. How, then, were women artists supposed to be taken seriously?

This talk addresses key social and political developments in 18th and 19th century France, which influenced women’s ambitions to become professional artists and exhibit their work in public. It examines the roles that Enlightenment education and the French Revolution played in the gendered politics of artistic practice, and explores how women responded to these issues with their art. Ultimately, this talk will show that - despite institutional attempts to prevent them from achieving the same education as men - women artists were lively participants in Paris’s public art scene.