In the Middle Ages, women held the positions of wife, mother, peasant, artisan, and nun, and some leadership roles such as abbess or queen regnant. Women were denied all political rights and were subjects to their husbands. The roles of women were changed through technological advances in the 19th century. The Industrial Revolution moved people from farms to factories, the new tools made art production easier. This new movement and shift in America meant a lot for women. It is the time period that birthed Impressionism and it was the “ beginning of women’s long struggle for equality” .( Girls, 47) Women artists, painters, and educated women began to rise from being oppressed, something new happened in painting that never happened before. Women were being painted as the dominant roles in paintings, and women were being painted as everyday citizens who have “normal jobs” or who are living “normal lives” for example a women in her comfort zone with her sewing machine, or a woman sitting at the dinner table with her girls talking about men or politics. These types of paintings were very new and “ rebellious” because before this time period women were drawn by men and the men had the power of how women were portrayed in paintings. Those paintings were usually of women being oppressed.
The 19th century brought an uprise of women challenging the status quo such as Rosa Bonheur. Rosa Bonheur was one of the elite women feminists who was very successful and dominated the male’s profession through her artwork of Buffalo Bill in the Wild West Show. She also lived openly as a lesbian. She lived an aesthetically radical but a social impressionist bourgeois life. She also lived openly with her female lover, Nathalie Micas. Edmonia Lewis was another female rebel who made her art about slavery in Italy. Italy is a very racist country towards blacks and in that time period or even now very misogynist, for Edmonia Lewis to bring her artwork that is now famous everywhere in Italy was very brave. Even though women like Rose and Edmonia were successful in showcasing their work in a patriarchal and male-dominated society, there were still a lot of controversial issues about women showcasing their art or craft in the public eye by then art and craft of men. For example at the Philadelphia Exposition in 1876, there was a huge argument that revolved around women having their own artwork in their own spotlight in the Pavilion or should the art of women be broadcasted next to the artwork of men in the Pavilion, which meant that the artwork of women would be overshadowed by the men’s. In this time period, only middle or high-class women were able to come out in society and be such rebellious feminism, lower-class women still had to suffer is that they did not have the economic or social resources to help them out of their oppression. In all, the brave artwork of Rosa and Edmonia paid off by it being an enlightenment era for women across Europe, women were able to see life from a dominating lense and through art, they were able to see someone who represented them and knows that there is more to life than men dictatorship. Through the artwork of women who depicted politics, women being the center of attention, and women having the power showed women to be the next one in line to overthrow men and for men, it became a social issue because it messed with their ego and this new movement for women disrupted their “dominant power” over women.
Guerrilla Girls (Group of artists)., and Guerrilla Girls (Group of artists). The Guerrilla Girls' bedside companion to the history of Western art. Penguin (Non-Classics), 1998.
Rebecca Solomon (1832-1886). The Governess — "Ye too, the friendless, yet dependent, that find nor home nor lover. Sad imprisoned hearts, captive to the net of circumstance." — Martin Tupper. Exhibited: Royal Academy 1854. No. 425. http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/solomonr/paintings/1.html
This painting shows how women still face gender inequality even when women rose to power, and had an educational background. The governess in this case still has to be a babysitter and play her gender role as the house keep or watcher and babysitter meanwhile she has a degree. The only way she can advance financially is through marriage.
Lilly Martin Spencer, We Both Must Fade (Mrs. Fithian), 1869, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1970.101.
Mrs. Fithian admires her beauty and admiration through the tokens that were given to her for her beauty. It shows the respectful women's gaze, gazing at women of beauty, substance, and respect. A woman who is more than her naked body and it portrays a painting that has no male power or control.
https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/we-both-must-fade-mrs-fithian-22794
To be black and a woman had to be the hardest thing in the world in the 1800’s, even now colored women still suffer oppression, for Harriet Powers to create this beautiful craft in her time was power and spoke volumes.
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