Women Artists and the Politics of Neoclassicism

The history of eighteenth-century French painting has long been dominated by the study of canonical male artists like Jacques-Louis David, whose name is synonymous with a Neoclassical aesthetic. However, as recent scholarship has shown, from the end of the French Revolution through the Restoration women artists were more visible than generally acknowledged, such as by exhibiting in increasing numbers at the Salon and the Royal Academy and participating in the commercial market. This panel invites papers investigating how women makers responded to the dramatic social and political upheaval in France and its reverberations across Europe, Great Britain, or more broadly from the late eighteenth century throughout the nineteenth. Can any trends in subject matter chosen by women be identified within the broad umbrella that constitutes Neoclassicism? Did Neoclassicism – with its inclination toward the classical body and the genre of history painting – necessarily exclude a number of women artists who often concentrated on more ostensibly neutral subject matter such as still life or portraiture? Or were there more women like Nanine Vallain, a student of David, who actively participated in political conversations? This panel aims to explore reform, revolution, and restoration from the perspective of women – including those who were patrons of the arts – in the hopes of expanding or nuancing our collective interpretation of the Neoclassical movement, broadly defined. Papers that discuss – whether in support or repudiation of – the contested notion that there are specifically feminine or masculine characteristics to artworks are particularly welcome.