Art has the incredible gift of offering us a lens into society throughout the ages. We can see our ancestors thriving through cave paintings; we can see the energy of political movements; and we can see the passions, pains, and theatrics of humanity. We can gain insight into our social identities and cultural heritage. Exploring art allows us to explore ourselves and our ideas and see how our societies have evolved over the centuries.

Throughout the history of Western art, there has been a multitude of color, shape, design, and technique. From the gold leaf of medieval paintings to the blocked primary colors of postmodernism; from intricate preparatory sketches to painting directly onto the canvas. Even from gracing the walls of sacred spaces to featuring a urinal. The rich and wildly varying development of art has encompassed such powerful movements, ideas, and interpretations. So, how can there be a common feature in exploring this history?

Unsurprisingly to many, the simple fact is that this incredible history is only half the story. For the most part, throughout all of the various art movements, the commonality is that only the male artists are really featured. Of course, there are some exceptions, but in the greater course of this narrative, these exceptions are an exceptional minority. Females are strongly featured in art, but usually as the subject of the piece rather than the executor. So, in all its glory, the history of art has a whole other side in the shadows.

Impressionism was a movement that began in the late 1800s, often considered specifically as 1873, with Claude Monet’s Impression: Sunrise being exhibited. It was a movement that was facilitated by the growth of the industrial era. Paint was now available in tubes, canvases could be obtained fully primed, and painters could set off into the countryside on trains for the day. It was also a movement that, rather than being inspired by history, allegory, or religion, was very much interested in seeing what was in front of them—people, movement, light, and color. As such, in particular, there was a focus on passive looking around at society, or ‘the gaze.’ Impressionists were influenced by the writings of Charles Baudelaire, who offered the term flâneur as a young gentleman who observes modern life pulsating around him. Modern painters should adopt this carefree, unobtrusive style of looking in the production of modern art. Thus, the act of observation or gazing became a feature of impressionist work. The paintings acted as snapshots of ordinary, social life bustling around, with you, the viewer, behind the lens.

At the time of the impressionist movement, it was considered improper for women to be outside unaccompanied. So, it fell on the male artists’ shoulders to act as the all-important flâneur. This can be seen in the work of many impressionist artists as they pick their way through Parisian streets, observing social gatherings, train stations, cafés, and theaters.

Yet, the other side of the story—the secrets of the indoor realm—are held by the female artists. As such, female impressionist artists are more and more being pulled out of the shadows. Their work is starting to be more recognized for its individuality, contribution to the movement, and its unique take on their observations of the world. For instance, Mary Cassatt is highly celebrated for her work beautifully capturing mothers and their children, often shining a light on intimate moments of maternal bonding. She also claps back at the dominant male gaze with Woman in Black at the Opera (1878), where she depicts a woman who, rather than being positioned to be observed, is sitting upright, facing away from the viewer, with her fan snapped shut, and is doing some gazing of her own through her binoculars. Quite the contrast to Auguste Renoir’s rendition of a female opera attendant, La Loge (1874).

Additionally, more female impressionist artists such as Berthe Morisot, Eva Gonzalès, Marie Bracquemond, and Lilla Cabot Perry, to name a few, are slowly being more broadly recognized. While they still do not hold the same widespread fame as their male counterparts, there is work being done to correctly attribute some of the limelight to their work. While artists like Monet and Renoir will immediately spring to mind, as their work is so popular and widespread that it has been soaked up by marketing industries and reproduced as every trinket you could think of, their colleagues have far less public attention. Yet, it would appear that the female impressionists are finally beginning to enter the broader domain as books, exhibitions, and prints have started to feature them more strongly. For example, in 2024, the National Gallery of Ireland held an exhibition Women Impressionists curated by Janet McLean and Dorthe Vangsgaard Nielsen, demonstrating the shift in focus in capturing the full picture of Impressionist art. Of course, the next step would be to include all artists under the title ‘Impressionist Artist,’ rather than segregated by gender, but hopefully, that is the next step.

However, as we move beyond Impressionism further into the twentieth century, it would appear that women stopped or at least slowed in their contribution to art. Yet, in reality, that is hardly the case. Unfortunately, the push to recognize female artists is incredibly slow, and the drive to continue exploring popular artists keeps all others in the dark. That is to say, this fact is not to detract from the work of male artists but instead to broaden that lens, shift the focus, and see the whole picture. The picture that includes all of the artists.

Post-Impressionism, Cubism, Fauvism, Expressionism, and so on. All of these movements are dominated by male artists and leave little room for appreciation of the contributions by female artists. The name Henri Matisse has (rightfully) been celebrated and recognized worldwide for slashing the boundaries of color in painting and unleashing wild and bold artworks that are bursting with rich and vibrant color yet maintain a sense of balance, cohesion, and optical appeal. His work is so popular that even his male counterparts battle to be recognized by the general public. So, it really is a chore to delve into the Fauvist narrative and pull some of the female artists into the light.

Georgette Agutte was a French artist and, together with her husband, an art collector. Her work conveys a depth of understanding of color and form. As a painter and a sculptor, she breathes life into her subjects and experiments with new techniques. A friend of Matisse and an owner of some of his work, Agutte made a strong individual contribution to the Fauvist movement. Yet, finding in-depth information about her is extremely difficult. Even upon exploring Grenoble’s Museum of Art, home to many of her pieces as well as her personal collection, further examination and detail of her work are extremely scarce. By contrast to the merchandising of Impressionism, this museum—the primary location of her work—only produces two basic postcards of Georgette Agutte’s paintings; she completed approximately 800 works.

Agutte died sadly by suicide, heartbroken by the sudden death of her deeply supportive husband. She wrote, “Voilà douze heures qu’il est parti. Je suis en retard” (“He has been gone for 12 hours. I am late”). This heavy and sombre message carries a stark insight into the mind of a devastated woman. It is interesting, by comparison, that such a profound and moving death has not captured the sympathy of the masses in the same way as that of Vincent Van Gogh. Another worthy artist whose artwork is deeply inspirational and insightful. But why can the same energy not be applied to Agutte? Her huge contribution to the art world remains shrouded in mystery, hidden behind the walls of private collectors and hanging in the void of unwritten books.

Georgette Agutte lived in a time when women were not permitted to study art, not permitted to vote, not considered capable of achieving great things, and not considered worthy of their own independence. And we consider this outlook to be outdated. Yet we are still fighting to explore the full picture of our art history. To hear from the voices in the shadows. There are many more women like Agutte whose lives and art are buried and inaccessible to the general public. It is time to show them some appreciation and recognition for their fascinating, beautiful, and enlightened contributions to art, culture, and social history. Female artists are artists.

References

Katy Hessel, The Story of Art Without Men, Penguin 2022.
Ludivine Gaillard, Georgette Agutte : une artiste accomplie, trop vite oubliée!, 2021.
Francis Frascina, Modernity and Modernism - French Painting in the Nineteenth Century, Yale University Press, 1993.
Charles Baudelaire, Painter of Modern Life, 1863.
Steve Edwards and Paul Woods (ed.), Art of the Avant-Gardes, Yale University Press, 2004.