Making Her Mark

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Anne Guéret, “Portrait of an artist with a Portfolio (Self-Portrait),” c. 1793, black chalk, pen and grey ink and wash, heightened with white gouache on paper, 12.5" × 16" (Katrin Bellinger Collection, courtesy of the Art Gallery of Ontario)

They weren’t unusual, rare or unique. But because these Renaissance artists were women, many of their names have been forgotten, or were never recorded in the first place. 

Making Her Mark: A History of Women Artists in Europe, 1400-1800 at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) through July 1, gives these makers their due. It also explodes the myth that women’s artistic contributions over these nearly four centuries were nominal or unremarkable.

AGO co-curator Alexa Greist says many women of this period were professional furniture makers, silversmiths and enamellers; painters, printers, sculptors and ceramicists; weavers and lace makers. Some ran their own workshops. “I think people will be surprised by how much was and is hiding in plain sight about how women’s hands were involved in the arts in Europe in this time period.”

Featuring more than 230 works from six countries, the show spans a vast range of creative disciplines and places traditional fine art next to work often deemed “craft”. Celebrated artists rub elbows with unidentified, so-called amateurs, female collectives and religious orders. It convincingly demonstrates how women played integral roles in the development of art, culture and commerce while “pushing back” against ongoing, entrenched assumptions. “Someone will say, ‘that’s a really good example, so it was probably made professionally by a man’,” Dr. Greist notes.

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Clara Peeters, “A Still Life of Lilies, Roses, Iris, Pansies, Columbine, Love-in-a-Mist, Larkspur and Other Flowers in a Glass Vase on a Table Top, Flanked by a Rose and a Carnation,” c.1610 (courtesy of Art Gallery of Ontario)

Making Her Mark includes noted female artists such as Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi who was producing professional work by the time she was 15 years old. She was also invited to join the Academy of the Arts of Drawing — a rare acknowledgement from her male peers.

“There were professional embroiderers’ guilds, for example, but those were male, and women weren’t allowed to join,” Dr. Greist says. “So, what does it mean to be an amateur if you’re not allowed professional status even though you’re doing work that is just as good as a man’s?”

The show is a collaboration with the Baltimore Museum of Art. Co-curator Andaleeb Banta says she and Greist were initially worried they wouldn’t find enough pieces to support a comprehensive show of women’s creative work. Then they both realized they had to kick their own biases to the curb. 

“We ourselves had internalized this bias and we were only looking at painting and sculpture,” she says. “We realized we should be looking at all manner of artistic production. It was a revelation for us.”

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Sophia Jane Maria Bonnell and Mary Anne Harvey Bonnell, “Paper Filigree Cabinet on Stand with Hairwork and Watercolor Panels,” c.1789, wood, paper, metallic paper, silk, hair, and adhesive (courtesy of the Art Gallery of Ontario)

The show is visually lavish and frequently breath-taking. Take a very close look at the paper filigree cabinet (1789) painstakingly created by British sisters-in-law Sophia Jane Maria Bonnell and Mary Anne Harvey Bonnell. The two would have spent countless hours tightly rolling or “quilling” thousands of pieces of coloured paper to replicate intricate wood inlay.

“I like many things in the show,” Banta says. “But to me, this object is also a physical manifestation of their relationship, of the time they spent together.”

Making Her Mark is also a tactile and sensory experience. Gallery-goers can slip a shiny hank of horsehair — frequently used in furniture making — through their fingers at one of four touch stations. Then flip open one of the scent stations installed throughout the exhibition and breathe deeply for a whiff of Cloister, Parfum, Snuff Box or Botanical, designed by Dr. Melanie McBride, founder of the Aroma Inquiry Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University. Botanicals, for example, is next to fifty porcelain flowers produced by Sèvres Manufactory; Parfum evokes the musky scents of bodily odors and the popularity of florals to camouflage them and is strategically placed by the elegant Anna Maria Garthwaite gown (1688-1763).

The exhibition is curated by themes rather than artist, medium or chronology and it makes for a wholly engaging gallery experience. “I love that you walk into every single section and it’s every different media,” Greist says. “In every room you are reminded that women makers were present in all these different fields.” 

It also creates interesting “conversations” between different makers. Lavinia Fontana’s Portrait of Costanza Alidosi (1595) shows the subject richly adorned with snowy, ruffed lace collar and cuffs next to a display of an equally delicate, mounted lace collar from the 1600s. The lace maker — Italian or French — is unknown.

Dr. Greist acknowledges it is a challenging way to install a show, but she hopes it inspires a new way of looking at art.

“I would like people to look very closely and think about all the unseen hands that may have taken part in the work,” she says. 

“And I want them to be blown away by the absolute sheer variety, the strength and the consistency over the centuries that women were creating incredibly beautiful and meaningful work.” ■

Making Her Mark: A History of Women Artists in Europe, 1400-1800, is on view through July 1 at the Art Gallery of Ontario. 

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