Visual Artists Who Historically Surpassed Social Paradigms

The following female painters overcame the paradigms of their time and became highly accomplished women with a unique, sincere, and empowered gaze that was successfully transmitted through their art.

Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun

Élisabeth, also known as Madame Le Brun, was Marie Antoinette's own portraitist. She was talented from a young age. Her father, Louis Vigée, was a minor artist who worked with pastels and allowed Élisabeth to mess around with his crayons. According to her memoirs, he told her, "You will be a painter child if ever there was one." At that time, she was 11 years old, so she was undoubtedly promising as an artist. Élisabeth painted herself as a confident and attractive artist. In "Self-portrait in a Straw Hat," she holds her brushes and palette in one hand with an outstretched palm in the other hand as a gesture of friendship. This self-portrait was vital for Élisabeth's popularity because her wealth and beauty were part of her appeal. Nowadays, she is considered one of the greatest portrait artists of her time.

Tamara de Lempicka

Openly bisexual, it was her love for women that has given rise to her most outstanding works. Lempicka's paintings are recognizable at first glance. The polish painter created a style that strongly influenced future styles such as pop and comic art. Her "Self-Portrait in the Green Bugatti" from 1925 is a symbol of her art. In this work, Lempicka recalls the tragic death of Isadora Duncan, an American dancer who had been strangled to death two years earlier when her gray scarf got caught in the wheels of her Bugatti. Lempicka is considered the queen of Art Deco. She was as transgressive in her personal life as the myth that had emerged above her.

Also read: CRYPTO ART: THE DIGITIZATION OF THE NEW LATIN AMERICAN ART

Artemisia Gentileschi

She lived in the 17th century, which was an utterly male-dominated environment. Her 1615 painting "Self-Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria," which measures just over a two-foot square, has been newly acquired by The National Gallery and is the catalyst for their recent exhibition of her work in the UK. Artemisia is now considered one of the most accomplished 17th-century Italian artists. She was the first woman to become a member of the Accademia Delle Arti del Disegno in Florence and eventually acquired an international reputation. The Baroque painter specialized in scenes involving female heroines from mythology and the bible.

Berthe Morisot

Morisot was born in 1841 in Bourges, located to the south of Paris, where her father worked as a senior official in the local government. She began taking art classes not to become an artist but a highly accomplished woman. For her art lessons, her family placed her under the tutelage of the academic painter Joseph Benoît Guichard. Despite their stylistic differences, he recognized artistic talent in Morisot and took her to Paris to visit the Louvre and other art galleries. From then, she developed an interest in painting the world around her in a radical realist style. It was clear that she was on her way to becoming an impressionist on her paintings, which she accomplished.

Which of these artists was your favorite? Let us know by tagging us with the hashtag #TheWomanPost on social media. You can find us on Twitter and Instagram as @The_WomanPost, and on Facebook as The Woman Post.