British women artists have begun to enjoy once again the recognition they were accorded by their contemporaries. Karen Taylor's third catalogue on this subject coincides with the welcome exhibition at Tate Britain, Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920 (16 May - 13 October 2024) to which she is lending an album of early drawings by Sarah Stone (1762-1844), the first female British painter of birds and animals to achieve professional recognition.
Highlights include an eye-catching mandarin duck by Sarah Stone and botanical and scientific works by Augusta Withers, Matilda Hayes, Sarah Bowdich and Marion Chase. Portraiture, which provided the livelihood for many female artists, is well represented from Penelope Cawardine and Anna Tonelli in the Eighteenth Century to a drawing of Ellen Terry by Kate Hastings and a Laura Knight watercolour of Eileen Mayo. A drawing of Sylvia Pankhurst by Maria Cowell, a political work, is a reminder that before 1918 women were not allowed to vote in parliamentary elections in Great Britain and it was not until the Equal Franchise Act of 1928 that women finally achieved the same voting rights as men. Landscapes range from Amelia Long, Lady Farnborough's drawing of Bromley to Sophia Beale's impressive view of Heidelberg and Edith Martineau's Hampstead Heath, which embrace the Pre-Raphaelite landscape, as does a moody view of the Isle of Wight by Maria Stillman, one of the Pre-Raphaelite 'sisters'.
For further information please contact Karen Taylor
e: karen@karentaylorfineart.com
t: +44 (0)7881 581275
