This document provides information on female painters before the 20th century from several European countries and the United States. It includes biographical details and examples of works for painters such as Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith Leyster, Mary Beale, Mary Cassatt, Anna Ancher, and Maria Sibylla Merian. The document highlights how many of these pioneering female artists faced challenges in being recognized and supported professionally for their work, but some like Artemisia Gentileschi and Elizabeth Vigée Le Brun achieved great success and renown.

1. Female Painters
Before 20th Century
First created 14 Aug 2021. Version 1.0 - 28 Oct 2021. Daperro. London.

2. Italian
Women
Sofonisba Anguissola
(c1532-1625)
Lavinia Fontana
(1552-1614)
Giovanna Garzoni
(1600-1670)
Artemisia Gentileschi
(1593-c1656)
Elisabetta Siraini
(1638-1665)
Fede Galizia
(1578-1630)

3. Anguissola 1559
Anguissola is one of the earliest female
professional painter. She also met
Michelangelo. She was also recruited
into the Spanish court.

4. Fontana c1600

5. Fontana 1605

6. Fontana 1605
Galizia 1610

7. Artemisia Gentileschi c1625
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1656)
was by far the best known of all
the historical female painter. Like
many of the historic female
painter, her father Orazio
Gentileschi (1563-1639) was also a
well-known printer of his time.
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1656)
was also well-known independent
painter of her time. She also
travelled to England to help her
father, who became a royal painter
of the English court.
Artemisia painted several paintings
of female violence against men.

8. Artemisia Gentileschi 1620

9. Garzoni 1640s

10. Sirani c1665

11. Dutch
Judith Leyster
(1609-1660)
Clara Peeters
(1594-1657)
Catharina Hemessen
(1528-1565)
Flemish
Maria van Oostervijck
(1630-1693)
Rachel Ruysch
(1664-1750)

12. Leyster c1635
A Boy and Girl with a Cat and an Ell (Detail). C1635. 60x49 cm. National Gallery.

13. Oosterwyck 1670-75

14. Ruysch 1716
She was one of the most celebrated flower painters, followed by Jan van Huysum.

15. Peeters 1611

16. Peeters 1611

17. Hemessen 1551

18. Adelaide Labille-Guiard
(1749-1803)
French
Elizabeth Vigee
LeBrun (1755-1842)
Marie-Gabrielle Capet
(1761-1818)
Rosa Bonheur
(1822-1899)
Berthe Morisot
(1841-1895)
Marie Bracquemond
(1840-1916)
Louise Moillon
(1609-1695) possible.

19. Moillon 1788

20. Labille-Guiard 1788

21. Vigee LeBrun 1805
Vegee-Lebrun is possible the second
most well-known of the women
painters. She is also the most
successful of all woman artists

22. Vigee LeBrun 1787

23. Rosa Bonheur 1874
If there is intelligence in an
animal, Rosa Bonheur had
painted it. She had a young
brother, Auguste Francois
Bonheur (1824-1884), who was
also an animal painter.

24. Rosa Bonheur 1889

25. Bracquemond 1877

26. Morisot 1879

27. Capet 1783

28. British
Laura Theresa Alma-
Tadema (1852-1909)
Maude Goodman
(1860-1933)
Sophie Gengembre
Anderson (1823-1903)
Mary Beale
(1633-1699)

29. Beale 1670
“Mary Beale (née Cradock; bapt.
26 March 1633 – bur. 8 October
1699) was an English portrait
painter. … Beale became the main
financial provider for her family
through her professional work – a
career she maintained from
1670/71 to the 1690s. Beale was
also a writer, whose prose
Discourse on Friendship of 1666
presents scholarly, uniquely
female take on the subject.”
Wikipedia.

30. Beale 1670
Portrait of a Youth. 1680. 76.5x63.8 cm. Mary Beale (1633-1699) English. Dulwich Picture Gallery Longdon

31. Alma-Tadema 1904

32. Goodman 1900s (?)

33. Anderson 1903

34. Spanish
Rosario Weiss (Zorrilla)
(1814-1843)
Cecilia Beaux
(1855-1942)
American
Mary Cassatt
(1844-1926)

35. Rosario Weiss after 1826

36. Beayx 1888

37. Cassatt 1894

38. Cassatt 1897

39. Swedish
Emma Lowstadt-
Chadwick (1855-1932)
Danish
Anna Ancher
(1859-1935)
Jeanna Bauck
(1840-1926)
Swedish-
German
Betha Wegmann
(1847-1926)
Maria Sibylla Merian
(1647-1717)
Germa
n

40. Merian 1699

41. Lowstadt-Chadwick 1880

42. Bauck 1926
Jeanna Bauck (1840-1926) was the
daughter of a German-born
composer and a Swedish mother.
She remained in Sweden until 1863,
when she went to Germany to study
painting.
In her early career, she painted
exclusively on landscapes but later
began painting portraits.
In 1880, Jeanna moved to Paris and
shared a studio with her friend
Bertha Wegmann.

43. Ancher 1880
Anna Ancher (1859-1935) was a
talented Danish painter of the 19th
century. You can see her talent in this
painting. She was only 21 year old.
Anna Ancher was one of the artist
associated with the Skagen Painter,
an artist colony on the northern
western-facing Denmark, often
associated with the life of the
fishermen. She war married to
Michael Ancher, who was also a
Skagen Painter.

44. Ancher 1905

45. Wegmann 1885

46. The
End
Music – Charles Gounod. Faust - Ballet (Excerpt)

47. Baroque Painters