8 Overlooked Women Old Masters Who Were Ahead of Their Time

Contributions of women artists have been overlooked or forgotten in art history for centuries. While concerted efforts have improved circumstances for contemporary artists relative to their predecessors, the lives and work of women from past generations are still often left out of the discourse. A new exhibition at Robilant+Voena in New York seeks to correct this imbalance and celebrate the ingenuity, skill, and determination of women artists. Featuring over 30 works by European and American artists, “Ahead of her Time: Pioneering Women from the Renaissance to the Twentieth Century” highlights the myriad challenges facing women artists across generations, and how a group of talented figures overcame these obstacles.

Among these challenges was the lack of access to training, as formal academies excluded women (or severely limited the number accepted) and prevented them from studying certain subjects, such as the live figure. “A huge part of being an Old Master painter was the ability to study the nude male figure. Without this, a lot of women painted what was available to them, which often meant still life or portraiture,” explained Dr. Virginia Brilliant, the gallery’s director of Old Masters and curator of the exhibition. Such subjects were considered lower in prestige than revered history painting.

Through the work on view, the exhibition provides an intimate look at each artist’s circumstance, and in turn tells rich stories of perseverance that fill crucial gaps in art history. It also includes portraits of noteworthy women of the time, as well as some of the works they owned, providing insight into their own appearances and tastes. Here are eight outstanding Old Master women artists from the exhibition who overcame obstacles and created work that was ahead of their time.

Mary Beale

B. 1632, Barrow, England. D. 1697, London.

One of the first professional women artists in England, Mary Beale established a successful career as a portrait painter in the Stuart period. She began as an amateur painter while socializing with a group of creatives in London. When she and her husband fled London for Hampshire to avoid the plague, Beale began working professionally and excelled at portrait painting.

“Her years away from London gave Beale the chance to hone her craft, so much so that when she returned to the city, with encouragement from prominent artists like Peter Lely, she emerged as one of the premier Face Painters [portraitists] in London. She was even commissioned to make copies of Lely’s work,” said Brilliant. The exhibition features Beale’s Portrait of a Lady (ca. 1680s), which bears similarities to Lely’s style, in particular in her use of a prominent cartouche to encircle the sitter.

Beale was uniquely prominent not just as a woman artist, but as an artist in general. She was so successful that she employed her husband as her studio assistant. “He assiduously produced detailed diaries of her activities,” said Brilliant. “It’s a special thing to be able to look closely into the artist’s studio and preserve her successful, prolific career from an intimate standpoint.”

Orsola Maddalena Caccia

B. 1596, Moncalvo, Italy. D. 1676, Moncalvo.

One of many daughters growing up in a small town in Northern Italy, Orsola Maddalena Caccia had not just talent, but also a keen eye for business. Trained by her father, Guglielmo Caccia, the younger Caccia traveled with him as he completed his commissions, allowing her to become familiar with various tastes and establish her own network. She painted for many local families, as well as others she met beyond the small town of Moncalvo, and earned praise for her still lifes. Along with her sisters, Caccia entered a convent, and eventually the family constructed its own convent as an extension of the home that was funded by Caccia’s and her father’s practices.

“Her father died shortly after the convent opened, leaving Orsola his entire studio, including materials, books, and paintings, which she used to sustain a successful career for a remarkable five decades,” said Brilliant. “Her painting activity supported the convent for her entire lifetime, a remarkable feat at any time, but even more so as a woman and a nun.”

The exhibition includes Still Life with Flowers and Fruits (ca. 1630), a meticulous, skillfully rendered work with strong symmetry that shows Caccia’s interest in highlighting the beauty of nature. As in many of her paintings, she depicts plants from books and prints: both local and foreign to Moncalvo.

Rosalba Carriera

B. 1673, Venice. D. 1757, Venice.

Embracing luminous, pale pastels, smooth lines, and elegantly soft curves, Rosalba Carriera is well known for her style that seemed to shepherd in the lightness of the Rococo. “She effectively single-handedly revived the pastel genre in her era,” said Brilliant.

Carriera began her career drawing and painting portrait miniatures. By the beginning of the 18th century, freedom of movement had increased, opening more opportunities to travel abroad. Carriera capitalized on this relative freedom and built an impressive international network. As she developed her style, Carriera began making pastel portraits: an innovative use of the material at the time, as it had previously been used for studies or sketches.

“This was also the moment of the Grand Tour, so as she expanded her own audience, she was also highly sought after by Englishmen and Northern European aristocratic men who wanted to keep up with the popular styles and collect the biggest names,” said Brilliant. “It’s hard to fully grasp how profound her popularity was at the time.”

Carriera built a remarkably successful career in Italy and abroad, pioneering pastel portraits and setting a new standard for women artists. The show includes Allegories of the Four Seasons (mid-1730s), a set of radiant pastels on a group of a subject Carriera depicted often. Her work was celebrated by aristocrats, royals, and wealthy merchants as she skillfully portrayed the era’s love of lace, pearl, and pastels, seen in the rich, silky texture of the clothes in the works. Despite her international fame, Carriera, like many others who embodied a particular time and taste, fell out of vogue and was largely forgotten after the French Revolution in 1789.

Lavinia Fontana

B. 1552, Bologna, Italy. D. 1614, Rome.

Considered the first female artist to run her own studio, Lavinia Fontana was undoubtedly a pioneer. Like many other women who were able to maintain artistic practices, Fontana was trained by her father, giving her an advantage at a time when resources were unavailable to women.

“We don’t know if Fontana’s father allowed her to paint with life models, but we do know he was erudite and that she had access to prints, books, antique sculptures, and written materials that would have guided her in how to do figure painting,” said Brilliant. With these, Fontana developed a practice that included portraiture, as well as religious and mythological paintings. Fontana’s remarkable skills earned her prestigious commissions for portraits of nobility. Her close eye for detail allowed her to carefully render symbols of wealth and trade that would have been important to her subjects, such as jewelry and fine clothes.

The exhibition includes Portrait of Gerardo Giavarini at Twenty-Five Years Old (1598), a vibrant painting of the Bolognese nobleman. “The fact that she was selected above her rising contemporaries like Guido Reni and established figures such as Lodovico Carracci is significant, as is the fact that the subject is a man. While other women artists learned to do figure painting by studying their own bodies, Fontana’s skill in rendering the male form set her apart,” said Brilliant.

Fede Galizia

B. 1570s, Milan. D. 1630, Milan.

Internationally renowned Milanese painter Fede Galizia is another example of a woman artist who studied under her father, the skilled miniaturist painter Nunzio Galizia. From him, Galizia learned to create minute details and earned a reputation for remarkable portraits and meticulous still lifes, often set against dark backgrounds. “In her early works, we can see the influence of Galizia’s father in the close attention she pays to the jewels and textiles,” said Brilliant. “Gradually, her style evolved significantly as she was afforded the luxury of travel, often with her father, and absorbed influences of other artists, in particular Caravaggio.”

In the exhibition, Judith with the Head of Holofernes (ca. 1620s) shows Caravaggio’s influence in Galizia’s use of chiaroscuro with Judith’s light skin contrasting the dark background. On the bag in which Judith is placing Holofernes’s head, Galizia signed her name in blood red, recalling Caravaggio’s signature in Beheading of Saint John the Baptist (1608). “Galizia would have seen Caravaggio’s work in the collection of the [important noble house of the] Savoy and understood this was the taste of the time for it to be commissioned by powerful families. She was fortunate to travel and smart to learn from other artists,” said Brilliant.

Angelica Kauffmann

B. 1741, Chur, Switzerland. D. 1807, Rome.

Angelica Kauffmann was widely celebrated for her skillfully made, multifigured history paintings and portraits that would have been coveted among the upper class, including the two oil on metal works in the exhibition, Allegory of Prudence and Allegories of Mercy and Truth (both before 1780). With artistic training from her father, Kauffmann made a name for herself and, along with Mary Moser, was one of only two founding female members of the Royal Academy in London. Even so, she was still unable to study the nude male figure; in fact, the Royal Academy didn’t allow it until the 1890s, over 80 years after Kauffmann’s death.

“Kauffmann is a great example of an artist who overcame the hurdles placed on her by the academies,” said Brilliant. “She was innovative and determined to excel as a history painter at a time when it was nearly impossible to do so, but that’s exactly what she did.” Without live models, she turned to antiquities in her years spent in Italy, learning how to create figure drawing through the study of ancient sculpture. “She essentially made her own curriculum. Oftentimes her figural works have the poses and idealized beauty of antiquities that you wouldn’t see if she’d been working from life,” Brilliant added.

Back in London, Kauffman faced another challenge in the specific taste in vogue, as the British preferred portraiture and landscape painting. “There wasn’t a big market for Kauffman’s work there, so she moved back to Italy after marrying an Italian artist,” said Brilliant. With less resistance to history painting—and to women artists—in Italy, Kauffman was able to flourish and continue to build her successful career.

Catherine Lusurier

B. 1752, Paris. D. 1781, Paris.

Living only to the age of 28, Catherine Lusurier is not as well known as some of her fellow artists, but she was skilled and successful in her own right. Lusurier’s aunt married into the renowned Drouais artist family, who trained Lusurier herself. “While the Drouais artists attended to royal portraiture, Lusurier focused on painting intellectuals and other artists, taking care to capture their personalities and trade with a sensitivity that demonstrates her respect for her fellow creatives,” said Brilliant. This mutual respect was a testament to Lusurier’s ability to forge connections and build a network of support.

One such example included in the exhibition is Portrait of the Artist Carle Vernet (1758–1836) (ca. 1770s), an image of Carle Vernet that shows him in a dark background with tools of his craft visible, including an easel, sketches, and a paintbrush. The vibrant hues of his clothes demonstrate Lusurier’s eye for color. The sitter looks directly at the viewer, a highly uncommon position likely influenced by Lusurier’s mentor, Jean-Germain Drouais. “She was smart to know that making eye contact with the viewer would cause quite a stir,” said Brilliant.

Anne Vallayer-Coster

B. 1744, Paris. D. 1818, Paris.