About two weeks ago, I started a blog dedicated to female artists and patrons throughout art history. I had been sitting in my Women in Art class learning about a painter named Rachel Ruysch. Like many others I had never heard of her before; Ruysch was from Amsterdam and a contemporary of Rembrandt.
Now here comes the shocking bit: During their lifetimes, Ruysch’s paintings sold for four times as much as any Rembrandt painting. The fact that her works sold for so much indicates that Ruysch was a well-known and influential member of the Dutch art world. So why had I never learned about her in my survey class?
One of Ruysch’s most famous works is titled Fruit and Insects. It is a beautiful still life, combining fruit, insects and plant life. The colors are sumptuous, the lights and darks dramatic, yet soft. The composition is complex; everything appears simultaneously purposeful and casual. The urge to reach in and take a cluster of grapes overwhelms the viewer.
The painting is not just pleasing to the eye, but also engages with conceptual thought. Fruit and Insects is a Vanitas image. What is a Vanitas image, you may ask? Well, allow me to expand your vocabulary by one extremely obscure word you will likely never use. It is a work that portrays the cycle of life and the inevitability of death. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
At the bottom right, a lizard, the symbol of decay, devours an egg from a nearby nest. Butterflies, symbols of the resurrected soul, flit about, perching on the stalks of wheat and grapes, symbols of the body and blood of Christ. The somber and heavy subject matter doesn’t detract from the beauty of her painting, but works together seamlessly. They speak softly to the discerning viewer while the beauty of her composition and attention to detail take center stage.
If Ruysch was such a talented artist, why have most of us never heard of her? Surely she deserves the recognition! Not only was she talented, but she worked in a society where genius belonged only to men, and women who made art were considered amateur.
When the French Royal Academy was started, “they” instituted a hierarchy of painting. History painting featuring the nude body was the pinnacle of artistic achievement, while genre painting and still life were considered the least sophisticated. Women were not allowed to study the nude body and were essentially prohibited from achieving artistic genius. Other countries followed suit and began their own royal academies, each taking on the hierarchy of genres proposed by the French. An artist like Rachel Ruysch who painted still life would never achieve greatness within this system.
The academies are the foundations for the study of art history. But as institutions, they systematically excluded women from becoming recognized artists. It was inappropriate for women to pursue an art education. Therefore, many women never studied the nude body or learned perspective. Despite this there are still multiple women who threw caution to the wind and pursued their passion.
One of those women is the well-known Rosa Bonheur, one of three women I did learn about in my survey class. Bonheur was the first woman to receive the Legion of Honor for her work. However, earlier on in her career, her self portrait was slammed by critics who stated that she looked “like a cow.”
Another woman who not many people know of is Maria Sybilla Merian. Merian actually changed the face of zoology and botany for generations to come by documenting the metamorphoses of insects in her paintings. That’s insane! Not knowing about these women is practically criminal!
We don’t talk about the women in the past who contributed to the art world. We know the men; Picasso, Monet, Van Gogh, and when we think about women artists we tend to think of artists in the last hundred years. For example Cindy Sherman, who was the first female artist to break one million dollars at an auction. Others include Georgia O’Keeffe, Frida Kahlo and Ann Hamilton who are all amazing women with incredible talent. But it is important to recognize that women have always had talent and have always been artists. We just weren’t recognized for it. It is worthwhile to remind ourselves of our legacy and of to be proud of the women throughout our history who have always been making art.
Visit Sara’s blog, Put Women in Canon.