Women Have It Tough

Does it usually seem that women have to work twice as hard as men to succeed in this world? It surely was for women artists. No art schools around the 1850's to the 1900's would accept them and if a woman broke away from the mold, it was usually frowned upon. Seeing the exhibit, at the Denver Art Museum, of  Her Paris: Women Artists in the Age of Impressionism made me admire those ladies who did not care about what people thought and followed their dream of becoming artists!

I know that photographs are not allowed in certain areas of the museum so my camera came out at the elevators where some of the work had been copied on the doors. I thought the elevator paintings were great but soon I would see the original works! With a sticker on my chest to prove I had paid to enter the exhibition, I entered the hall to see wall to wall pictures of France.  I had never heard of the artists on display:  Marie Bracquemond, Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt , Rosa Bonhaur, Anna Ancher, or Paula Modersohn Becker. I did enjoy looking at their work and noticed there seemed to be a lot of self portraits.

How frustrating it must have been for the woman with talent and having to fight society to express herself.  Women could not be seen out in public without a male escort and they began to meet in homes to talk and to paint. I found it strange that in one painting the woman is smoking, which was probably another taboo. The picture was painted by Amelie Beaury Saurel who was married to Rudolphe Julian of the Academe Julian, the only place women could study art.

In one of the explanations of a painting: "barriers remained that limited their opportunities for exhibition and access to education, both crucial to artists who aspired to greatness." As I looked at the many paintings by women, I wondered how great these women would have been in more modern times. As it was, their paintings were beautiful and outstanding!

"The question isn't

who is going to let me; it's

who is going to stop me!"

Unknown