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The Middle Ages
Women Artists (Europe)
Carroll, Jane L. “Woven Devotions: Reform and Piety in Tapestries by Dominican Nuns.” In Saints, Sinners and Sisters. Gender and Northern Art in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, edited by Jane L. Carroll and Alison G. Stewart, 182-201. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2003. Examines two tapestries that were produced by Dominican nuns in Germany. Both have small depictions of nuns working at looms in the margins, which may be self-portraits.
Cyrus, Cynthia J.The Scribes for Women’s Convents in Late Medieval Germany. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009.
Hamburger, Jeffrey F.Nuns as Artists: The Visual Culture of the Medieval Convent. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
Martin, Therese (ed). Reassessing the Roles of Women as ‘makers’ of Medieval Art and Architecture. 2 vols. Brill, 2012.
Miner, Dorothy Eugenia. Anastaise and Her Sisters: Women Artists of the Middle Ages. Baltimore: Walters Art Gallery, 1974.
Oliver, Judith H. Singing with Angels: Liturgy, Music, and Art in the Gradual of Gisela Von Kerssenbrock. Belgium: Isd, 2007.
Ross, Leslie. “Women Artists of the Medieval Era.” In Artists of the Middle Ages. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2003.
Sciacca, Christine. Illuminating Women in the Medieval World. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2017.
Women Patrons (Europe)
Bell, Susan Groag. “Medieval Women Book Owners: Arbiters of Lay Piety and Ambassadors of Culture.” In Women and Power in the Middle Ages, edited by Mary Erler and Maryanne Kowaleski, 149-87. Athens, GA: The University of Georgia Press, 1988.
Brown, Cynthia J. and Anne-Marie Legare. Women, Art and Culture in Medieval and Early Renaissance Europe / Les femmes, la culture et les arts en Europe, entre Moyen âge et Renaissance. Turnhout: Brepols, 2013.
Hamilton, Tracy Chapman. Pleasure and Politics at the Court of France: The Artistic Patronage of Queen Marie of Brabant (1260-1321). Turnhout: Brepols Publishers , 2019.
Hamburger, Jeffrey F. The Visual and the Visionary: Art and Female Spirituality in Late Medieval Germany. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998.
Hand, Joni M. Women, Manuscripts, and Identity in Northern Europe, 1350-1550. Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2013.
Matter, Ann E., and John Coakley, eds. Creative Women in Medieval and Early Modern Italy: A Religious and Artistic Renaissance. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994. See “Chiara Gambacorta of Pisa as Patroness of the Arts” (pp. 120-154) by Ann M. Roberts and “Piety and Patronage: Women and the Early Jesuits “(pp. 157-184) by Carolyn Valone.
McCash, June Hall. The Cultural Patronage of Medieval Women. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1996.
Raguin, Virginia Chieffo, and Sarah Stanbury, eds. Women’s Space: Patronage, Place and Gender in the Medieval Church. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2006.
Sciacca, Christine. Illuminating Women in the Medieval World. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2017.
Gender & Art in Medieval Europe
Amt, Emilie. Women’s Lives in Medieval Europe: A Sourcebook. New York and London: Routledge, 2010.
Bennett, Judith M., and Ruth Mazo Karras, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Women and Gender in Medieval Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.
Bridenthal, Renate, Claudia Koonz and Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks, eds. Becoming Visible: Women in European History. 3rd Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998.
Debby, Nirit Ben-Aryeh. The Cult of St. Clare of Assisi in Early Modern Italy, Visual Culture in Early Modernity. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2014.
Dressler, Rachel. “Gender Studies in Medieval Art.” In The Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art and Architecture. Vol. 2. Edited by Colum Hourihane, 646–649. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Grössinger, Christa. Picturing Women in Late Medieval and Renaissance Art. New York: Manchester University Press, 1997.
Klapisch-Zuber, Christiane, ed. A History of Women in the West: Volume 2. Silences of the Middle Ages. Cambridge: Harvard University, 1992.
Kurmann-Schwartz, Brigitte. “Gender and Medieval Art.” InA Companion to Medieval Art: Romanesque and Gothic in Northern Europe. Edited by Conrad Rudolph, 128–158. Oxford and Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2006.
L’Estrange, Elizabeth and Alison More, eds. Representing Medieval Genders and Sexualities in Europe: Construction, Transformation, and Subversion, 600-1530. Farnham, Ashgate, 2011.
Morrison, Susan Signe. A Medieval Woman’s Companion: Women’s Lives in the European Middle Ages. Oxford and Philadelphia: Oxbow Books, 2016.
Pizan, Christine de. The Book of the City of Ladies. Translated by Rosalind Brown-Grant. New York: Penguin Classics, 2000.
Skinner, Patricia. Studying Gender in Medieval Europe: Historical Approaches. London: Palgrave Macmillan Education, 2018.
Swan, Laura. The Wisdom of the Beguines: The Forgotten Story of a Medieval Women’s Movement. New York: BlueBridge, 2016.
Ward, Jennifer C. Women in Medieval Europe, 1200-1500. 2nd Edition. London: Routledge, 2016.
Online Resources
Epistolae: Medieval Women’s Letters: Epistolae is a collection of letters to and from women in the Middle Ages, from the 4th to the 13th century. The letters, written in Latin, are linked to the names of the women involved, with English translations and, where available, biographical sketches of the women and some description of the subject matter or the historic context of the letter.
Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index: Indexes over 500 journals as well as many essay collections devoted in large part to topics dealing with women, sexuality, or gender.
Monastic Matrix: A scholarly resource for the study of women’s religious communities from 400 to 1600 CE.
Premodern Women Artists and Patrons: A Global Bibliography: A bibliography on women artists and patrons, with sections on Asia, the Americas, Islamic Cultures, and Europe from antiquity–c. 1700, individual women, topics like “Textiles and Needlework,” and online and teaching resources. Additions, corrections, and feedback on its structure (from new entries to Sub-Saharan Africa) are welcome via Comments on the Google Doc. Submitted by Pat Simons (University of Michigan) and Tracy Chapman Hamilton (Virginia Commonwealth University, Affiliate).
Queens in the Middle Ages: A comprehensive bibliography of Medieval Queens and Queenship.
Medieval Societies & Journals
Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender: The Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender supports and promotes inclusive and creative scholarship on women and gender across the early modern world. Publications: Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal.
Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship: The Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship promotes the study of the Patristic Age, the Middle Ages, and the early modern era from the perspective of gender studies, women’s studies, and feminist studies. Publications: Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality.
Renaissance & Baroque (14th-17th centuries)
Women Artists (Europe)
Barker, Sheila. Women Artists in Early Modern Italy: Careers, Fame, and Collectors. Turnhout: Harvey Miller Publishers, 2016.
Bohn, Babette. “From Oxymoron to Virile Paintbrush: Women Artists in Early Modern Europe.” In A Companion to Renaissance and Baroque Art, edited by Babette Bohn and James M. Saslow, 229-49. Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons, 2013.
Bohn, Babette. “Female self-portraiture in early modern Bologna.” Renaissance Studies 18, no. 2 (2004), 239-286.
Bohn, Babette. “The Antique Heroines of Elisabetta Sirani.” Renaissance Studies 16, no. 1 (2002), 52-79.
Davis, Natalie Zemon. Women on the Margins: Three Seventeenth-Century Lives. Cambridge (Mass.): Belknap Press, 1997.
Female Artists in the Renaissance (via Smarthistory)
Fortunati, Vera, Jordana Pomeroy, and Claudio Strinati. Italian Women Artists from Renaissance to Baroque. Milan: Skira Editore, 2007.
Fortune, Jane. Invisible Women: Forgotten Artists of Florence. The Florentine Press, 2010.
Garrard, Mary D. “Here’s Looking at Me: Sofonisba Anguissola and the Problem of the Woman Artist.” Renaissance Quarterly 47, no. 3 (1994): 556-622.
Jacobs, Fredrika H. Defining the Renaissance Virtuosa: Women Artists and the Language of Art History and Criticism. Cambridge: University Press, 1999.
Jacobs, Fredrika H. “Woman’s capacity to create: The unusual case of Sofonisba Anguissola.” Renaissance Quarterly 47, no. 1 (1994): 74-101.
James, Susan E. The Feminine Dynamic in English Art, 1485-1603: Women as Consumers, Patrons and Painters. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2009.
Johnson, Geraldine A., and Sara F. Matthews-Grieco, eds. Picturing Women in Renaissance and Baroque Italy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Lincoln, Evelyn. “Diana Mantuana and Roman Printmaking.” In her The Invention of the Italian Renaissance Printmaker. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000.
Lincoln, Evelyn, “Making a Good Impression: Diana Mantovana’s Printmaking Career.” Renaissance Quarterly 50, no. 4 (Winter, 1997), 1101-1147.
Markey, Lia. “The Female Printmaker and the Culture of the Reproductive Print Workshop” in Paper Museums: The Reproductive Print in Europe, edited by Rebecca Zorach and Elizabeth Rodini. Chicago: Smart Museum, 2005.
Rogers, Mary, and Paola Tinagli. Women and the Visual Arts in Italy C. 1400-1650. Luxury and Leisure, Duty and Devotion. A Sourcebook. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2012.
Sutton, Elizabeth A. Women Artists and Patrons in the Netherlands, 1500-1700. Amsterdam University Press, 2019.
Women Patrons (Mostly Europe)
Aikin, Judith P. A Ruler’s Consort in Early Modern Germany: Aemilia Juliana of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. Farnham, Ashgate, 2014.
Ben-Aryeh Debby, Nirit. “Vittoria Colonna and Titian’s Pitti Magdalen.” Woman’s Art Journal 24 no 1 (Spring-Summer 2003): 29-33.
Bracken, Susan, Andrea M. Gáldy, and Adriana Turpin, eds.. Women Patrons and Collectors. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2012.
Brown, Cynthia J. and Anne-Marie Legare. Women, Art and Culture in Medieval and Early Renaissance Europe / Les femmes, la culture et les arts en Europe, entre Moyen âge et Renaissance. Turnhout: Brepols, 2013.
Cruz, Anne J., and Maria Galli Stampino, eds. Early Modern Habsburg Women: Transnational Contexts, Cultural Conflicts, Dynastic Continuities. Farnham, Ashgate, 2013.
De Vries, Joyce. Caterina Sforza and the Art of Appearances: Gender, Art and Culture in Early Modern Italy. Farnham, Ashgate, 2010.
De Vries, Joyce. “Caterina Sforza’s Portrait Medals: Power, Gender, and Representation in the Italian Renaissance Court.” Woman’s Art Journal 24, no. 1 (Spring – Summer, 2003), 23-28.
Eisenbichler, Konrad. The Cultural World of Eleanora Di Toledo, Duchess of Florence and Siena. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2004.
Griffey, Erin, ed. Henrietta Maria: Piety, Politics and Patronage. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2008.
Harness, Kelley Ann. Echoes of Women’s Voices: Music, Art, and Female Patronage in Early Modern Florence. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.
Hickson, Sally Anne. Women, Art and Architectural Patronage in Renaissance Mantua: Matrons, Mystics and Monasteries. New York: Routledge, 2016.
Hills, Helen, ed. Architecture and the Politics of Gender in Early Modern Europe. Ashgate, 2003.
James, Susan E. The Feminine Dynamic in English Art, 1485-1603: Women as Consumers, Patrons and Painters. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2009.
King, Catherine E. Renaissance Women Patrons: Wives and Widows in Italy, c. 1300- 1550. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998.
Lawrence, Cynthia Miller, ed. Women and Art in Early Modern Europe: Patrons, Collectors, and Connoisseurs. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997.
Levy, Allison, ed. Widowhood and Visual Culture in Early Modern Europe. Aldershot and Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2003.
Meakin, H. L. The Painted Closet of Lady Anne Bacon Drury. Farnham: Ashgate, 2013.
McIver, Katherine A., and Cynthia Stollhans. Patronage, Gender and the Arts in Early Modern Italy: Essays in Honor of Carolyn Valone. New York: Italica Press Inc., 2015.
McIver, Katherine A. Wives, Widows, Mistresses, and Nuns in Early Modern Italy: Making the Invisible Visible Through Art and Patronage. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2012.
McIver, Katherine A. Women, Art, and Architecture in Northern Italy, 1520-1580: Negotiating Power. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2006.
Modesti, Adelina. Women’s Patronage and Gendered Cultural Networks in Early Modern Europe: Vittoria della Rovere, Grand Duchess of Tuscany. New York: Routledge, 2020.
Murphy, Caroline P. Lavinia Fontana A Painter and Her Patrons in Sixteenth Century Bologna. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2003.
Murphy, Caroline P. “Lavinia Fontana and Le Dame della Città: understanding female artistic patronage in late sixteenth-century Bologna.” Renaissance Studies 10, no. 2 (1996): 190-208.
Neville, Kristoffer and Lisa Skogh, eds. Queen Hedwig Eleonora and the Arts: Court Culture in Seventeenth-Century Northern Europe. London and New York: Routledge, 2017.
Pearson, Andrea G. ed. Women and Portraits in Early Modern Europe: Gender, Agency, Identity. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2008.
Radke, Gary. “Nuns and Their Art: The Case of San Zaccaria in Renaissance Venice.” Renaissance Quarterly 54, no. 2 (Summer 2001), 430-59.
Reiss, Sheryl E., and David G. Wilkins, eds. Beyond Isabella: Secular Women Patrons of Art in Renaissance Italy. Kirksville, Mo: Truman State University Press, 2001.
Sanger, Alice E. Art, Gender and Religious Devotion in Grand Ducal Tuscany. Farnham: Ashgate, 2014.
Solum, Stefanie. Women, Patronage, and Salvation in Renaissance Florence Lucrezia Tornabuoni and the Chapel of the Medici Palace. Farnham: Ashgate, 2015.
Sutton, Elizabeth A. Women Artists and Patrons in the Netherlands, 1500-1700. Amsterdam University Press, 2019.
Thys-Şenocak, Lucienne. Ottoman Women Builders: The Architectural Patronage of Hadice Turhan Sultan. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2006.
Tomas, Natalie R. The Medici Women: Gender and Power in Renaissance Florence. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003.
Nuns & Visual Culture in Early Modern Europe
Harness, Kelley Ann. Echoes of Women’s Voices: Music, Art, and Female Patronage in Early Modern Florence. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.
Lowe, K. J. P. Nuns’ Chronicles and Convent Culture in Renaissance and Counter-Reformation Italy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Monson, Craig. Nuns Behaving Badly: Tales of Music, Magic, Art, and Arson in the Convents of Italy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011.
Monson, Craig. The Crannied Wall: Women, Religion, and the Arts in Early Modern Europe. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Univ. of Michigan Press, 1995.
Paul, Benjamin. Nuns and Reform Art in Early Modern Venice: The Architecture of Santi Cosma E Damiano and Its Decoration from Tintoretto to Tiepolo. Farnham: Ashgate, 2012.
Periti, Giancarla. In the Courts of Religious Ladies: Art, Vision, and Pleasure in Italian Renaissance Convents. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016.
Roberts, Ann M. Dominican Women and Renaissance Art. The Convent of San Domenico of Pisa. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008.
Thomas, Anabel. Art and Piety in the Female Religious Communities of Renaissance Italy: Iconography, Space, and the Religious Woman’s Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Wood, Jeryldene M. Women, Art, and Spirituality: The Poor Clares of Early Modern Italy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Gender & Art in Early Modern Europe
Bell, Rudolph M. How to Do It: Guides to Good Living for Renaissance Italians. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010.
Bridenthal, Renate, Claudia Koonz and Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks, eds. Becoming Visible: Women in European History. 3rd Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998.
Carroll, Jane L., and Alison G. Stewart, eds. Saints, Sinners, and Sisters: Gender and Northern Art in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2003.
Cereta, Laura, and Diana Robin. Collected Letters of a Renaissance Feminist. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.
Davis, Natalie Zemon. Society and Culture in Early Modern France Eight Essays by Natalie Zemon Davis. Stanford (CA): Stanford University Press, 1975.
Fonte, Moderata. The Worth of Women, Wherein is Clearly Revealed Their Nobility and Their Superiority to Men. Translated and edited by Virginia Cox. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.
Franco, Veronica, Ann Rosalind Jones, and Margaret F. Rosenthal. Poems and Selected Letters. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.
Goffen, Rona. Titian’s Women. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997.
Grössinger, Christa. Picturing Women in Late Medieval and Renaissance Art. New York: Manchester University Press, 1997.
Wiesner, Merry E. Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.
Kelly-Gadol, Joan. “Did Women Have a Renaissance?” In Becoming Visible: Women in European History, edited by Renate Bridenthal and Claudia Koonz, 19-50. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1977.
King, Margaret L. Women of the Renaissance. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.
Klapisch-Zuber, Christiane. Women, Family, and Ritual in Renaissance Italy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.
Levy, Allison M. Widowhood and Visual Culture in Early Modern Europe. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003.
Lawner, Lynne. Lives of the Courtesans: Portraits of the Renaissance. New York: Rizzoli, 1987.
Marinella, Lucrezia, Anne Dunhill, and Letizia Panizza. The Nobility and Excellence of Women and the Defects and Vices of Men. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
Miguel, Marilyn, and Julian Schiesari, eds. Refiguring Woman: Perspectives on Gender and the Italian Renaissance. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991.
Moran, Sarah, and Amanda Pipkin. Women and Gender in the Early Modern Low Countries 1500-1750. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2019.
Musacchio, Jacqueline Marie. The Art and Ritual of Childbirth in Renaissance Italy. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999.
Pearson, Andrea. Women and Portraits in Early Modern Europe Gender, Agency, Identity. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2008.
Poska, Allyson M., Jane Couchman, and Katherine A. McIver. The Ashgate Research Companion to Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe. New York: Routledge, 2016.
Rogers, Mary, and Paola Tinagli. Women in Italy, 1350-1650. Ideals and Realities. A Sourcebook. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005.
Rosenthal, Margaret F. The Honest Courtesan: Veronica Franco, Citizen and Writer in Sixteenth-Century Venice. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1993.
Stortoni, Laura Anna, and Mary Prentice Lillie. Women Poets of the Italian Renaissance: Courtly Ladies and Courtesans. New York: Italica Press, 1997.
Tinagli, Paola. Women in Italian Renaissance Art: Gender, Representation, Identity. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1997.
Wiesner, Merry E. Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.
Online Resources
Advancing Women Artists Foundation: American not-for-profit organization that was committed to identifying, restoring and exhibiting artwork by women in Florence’s museum storages. Although the organization is no longer operative, the website will remain accessible as a digital archive and a resource for those interested in research, restoration and exhibition of art by women in Florence.
Art Herstory: On social media, in blog posts (including guest posts by contributors from a range of backgrounds), and on fine art note cards, Art Herstory showcases the work of female Old Masters.
Habsburg Women: Habsburg Women is a website dedicated to remarkable women belonging to one of Europe’s most famous dynasties, the house of Habsburg. These women were archduchesses, princesses, queen consorts and empresses who linked major courts and cities through strategic alliances and marriages. Our website will untangle their complex histories and these women’s involvement in the visual arts from 1500 to 1900. Authored by Dr. Annemarie Jordan Gschwend and Dr. Adriana Concin.
National Museum of Women in the Arts: The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) is the first museum in the world solely dedicated to championing women through the arts.
Premodern Women Artists and Patrons: A Global Bibliography: A bibliography on women artists and patrons, with sections on Asia, the Americas, Islamic Cultures, and Europe from antiquity–c. 1700, individual women, topics like “Textiles and Needlework,” and online and teaching resources. Additions, corrections, and feedback on its structure (from new entries to Sub-Saharan Africa) are welcome via Comments on the Google Doc. Submitted by Pat Simons (University of Michigan) and Tracy Chapman Hamilton (Virginia Commonwealth University, Affiliate).
Veronica Franco Project: The Veronica Franco Project is an interdisciplinary database that honors the extraordinary life and work of Veronica Franco (1546–1591), the most famous courtesan of Renaissance Venice. VFP explores the cross-cultural connections between courtesans and geishas; art historical images of renaissance women in relation to courtesans; costume and fashion history; and Franco’s pertinence in the 21st century.
Women Artists of Venice: Launched by Save Venice, the Women Artists of Venice program (WAV) is an effort to recover the history of women artists and artisans who were born in or active in Venice in the early modern period. WAV launched in 2021 with the conservation of paintings and pastels by Giulia Lama (1681-1747), Rosalba Carriera (1673-1757), and Marianna Carlevarijs (1703-1750) held in Venetian churches and museum collections.
Early Modern Societies & Journals
Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender: The Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender supports and promotes inclusive and creative scholarship on women and gender across the early modern world. Publications: Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal.
Renaissance Society of America: The Renaissance Society of America promotes study of the period 1300–1700. Publications: Renaissance Quarterly.
Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship: The Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship promotes the study of the Patristic Age, the Middle Ages, and the early modern era from the perspective of gender studies, women’s studies, and feminist studies. Publications: Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality.
Woman’s Art Journal: Representing the study of women and art worldwide, WAJ serves as a forum for feminist approaches to women artists from various art historical periods to the present.
18th Century
Women Artists (Europe)
Auricchio, Laura, and Jordana Pomeroy, eds. Royalists to Romantics Women Artists from the Louvre, Versailles and Other French National Collections. London: Scala Publishers Limited, 2012.
Auricchio, Laura. Adélaïde Labille-Guiard: Artist in the Age of Revolution. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2009.
Balducci, Temma, and Heather Belnap Jensen, eds. Women, Femininity and Public Space in European Visual Culture, 1789-1914. New York: Routledge, 2016.
Chapman, Caroline. Eighteenth-Century Women Artists: Their Trials, Tribulations & Triumphs. London: Unicorn Publishing Group, 2017.
Fortune, Jane. Invisible Women: Forgotten Artists of Florence. The Florentine Press, 2010.
Hyde, Melissa Lee, and Jennifer Dawn Milam, eds. Women, Art and the Politics of Identity in Eighteenth-Century Europe. New York: Routledge, 2016.
Hyde, Melissa Lee. “Women and the Visual Arts in the Age of Marie-Antoinette.” In Anne Vallayer-Coster: Painter to the Court of Marie-Antoinette, edited by Eik Kahng. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002.
Kahng, Eik, ed. Anne Vallayer-Coster: Painter to the Court of Marie-Antoinette. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002.
Pomeroy, Jordana, Rosalind P. Blakesley, and Vladimir Yu Matveyev, eds. An Imperial Collection: Women Artists from the State Hermitage Museum. New York: Merrell, 2003.
Rosenthal, Angela. “She’s got the look! Eighteenth-century Female portrait painters and the psychology of a potentially ‘dangerous employment.’” In Portraiture: Facing the Subject, edited by J. Woodall. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1997.
Roworth, Wendy Wassyng, ed. Angelica Kauffman: A Continental Artist in Georgian England. London: Reaktion Books and Brighton Art Gallery and Museum, 1992.
Sheriff, Mary D. The Exceptional Woman: Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun and the Cultural Politics of Art. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
Spencer, Samia I, ed. French Women and the Age of Enlightenment. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996.
Spies-Gans, Paris. “Mary Moser: Portraitist.” Journal18, no. 8 (Fall 2019).
Women Patrons
Bracken, Susan, Andrea M. Gáldy, and Adriana Turpin. Women Patrons and Collectors. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2012.
Gáldy, Andrea, Susan Bracken, and Adriana Turpin, eds. Women Patrons and Collectors. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012.
Yonan, Michael Elia. Empress Maria Theresa and the Politics of Habsburg Imperial Art. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2011.
Women, Art & Society
Beckstrand, Lisa. Deviant Women of the French Revolution and the Rise of Feminism. S.l.: Rowman And Littlefield, 2009.
Berlanstein, Lenard R. Daughters of Eve: A Cultural History of French Theater Women from the Old Régime to the Fin de Siècle. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001.
Dolan, Brian. Ladies of the Grand Tour: British Women in Pursuit of Enlightenment and Adventure in Eighteenth-Century Europe. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2001.
Hammond, Nicholas. Gossip, Sexuality and Scandal in France (1610-1715). Oxford: Peter Lang, 2011.
Hesse, Carla. The Other Enlightenment: How French Women Became Modern. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.
Hunt, Margaret R. Women in Eighteenth-Century Europe. New York, New York: Routledge, 2014.
Hurl-Eamon, Jennine. Women’s Roles in Eighteenth-Century Europe. Santa Barbara: Greenwood, 2010.
Haslip, Joan. Madame DuBarry: The Wages of Beauty. London: Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2005.
Landes, Joan B. Women and the Public Sphere in the Age of the French Revolution. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988.
Levy, Darline Gay, Harriet Branson Applewhite, and Mary Durham Johnson, eds. Women in Revolutionary Paris, 1789-1795: Selected Documents Translated with Notes and Commentary. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1979.
Mitford, Nancy, and Amanda Foreman. Madame de Pompadour. New York: NYRB Classics, 2001.
O’Brien, Karen. Women and Enlightenment in Eighteenth-Century Britain. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Perry, Gill, Joseph Roach, and Shearer West. The First Actresses: From Nell Gwyn to Sarah Siddons. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2011.
Weber, Caroline. Queen of fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution. New York: H. Holt, 2006.
Online Resources
Art Herstory: On social media, in blog posts (including guest posts by contributors from a range of backgrounds), and on fine art note cards, Art Herstory showcases the work of female Old Masters.
Dictionary of Pastellists Before 1800: An art reference work on pastels by artists of all schools working during the eighteenth century or before. On women artists included in the Dictionary, “Only some 17% of the pastellists were female overall, but this figure also varies significantly in the subgroups. Women made up less than 10% of the significant artists, while accounting for 45% of amateurs. They represented half the recorded Spanish artists but only an eighth of the Dutch and just over a fifth of the English and French schools. There are of course inevitable biases in the data, which reflect varying cultural traditions, for example, in relation to the admission and recording of honorary members in academies.”
Women Artists of Venice: Launched by Save Venice, the Women Artists of Venice program (WAV) is an effort to recover the history of women artists and artisans who were born in or active in Venice in the early modern period. WAV launched in 2021 with the conservation of paintings and pastels by Giulia Lama (1681-1747), Rosalba Carriera (1673-1757), and Marianna Carlevarijs (1703-1750) held in Venetian churches and museum collections.
Societies & Journals
American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS). The foremost learned society in the United States for the study of all aspects of the period from the later seventeenth through the early nineteenth century. Publications: Eighteenth-Century Studies, quarterly; Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture, annual.
Historians of Eighteenth-Century Art and Architecture (HECAA)
Journal18: A Journal of Eighteenth-Century Art and Culture. An online, open access, peer-reviewed journal devoted to the art and culture of the long eighteenth century from around the globe.
19th Century
Women Artists
Auricchio, Laura, and Jordana Pomeroy, eds. Royalists to Romantics Women Artists from the Louvre, Versailles and Other French National Collections. London: Scala Publishers Limited, 2012.
Balducci, Temma, and Heather Belnap Jensen, eds. Women, Femininity and Public Space in European Visual Culture, 1789-1914. New York: Routledge, 2016.
Bills, Mark. Watts Chapel: A Guide to the Symbols of Mary Watts’s Arts and Crafts Masterpiece. London: Philip Wilson Publishers, 2010.
Bolton-Smith, Robin, and William H. Truettner. Lilly Martin Spencer, 1822–1902: The Joys of Sentiment. Washington DC: National Collection of Fine Arts, 1973.
Breeskin, Adelyn Dohme. Mary Cassatt: A Catalogue Raisonne of the Oils, Pastels, Watercolors, and Drawings. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1970.
Buick, Kirsten Pai. Child of the Fire: Mary Edmonia Lewis and the Problem of Art History’s Black and Indian Subject. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010.
Callen, Anthea. Women Artists of the Arts and Crafts Movement: 1870-1914. New York: Pantheon Books, 1979.
Carter, Alice A. Cecilia Beaux: A Modern Painter in the Gilded Age. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 2005.
Chalmers, F. Graeme. Women in the Nineteenth-Century Art World: Schools of Art and Design for Women in London and Philadelphia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998.
Chapman, Caroline. Nineteenth-Century Women Artists: Sisters of the Brush. London: Unicorn Publishing Group, 2021.
Cherry, Deborah, and Janice Helland (eds). Local/Global: Women Artists in the Nineteenth Century. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006.
Chapman, Caroline. Beyond the Frame: Feminism and Visual Culture, Britain 1850–1900. London: Routledge, 2000.
Chapman, Caroline. Painting Women: Victorian Women Artists. London: Routledge, 1993.
Clarke, Meaghan. Critical Voices: Women and Art Criticism in Britain, 1880–1905. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005.
Corn, Wanda M. Women Building History: Public Art at the 1893 Columbian Exposition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011.
Cronin, Patricia. Harriet Hosmer, Lost and Found: A Catalogue Raisonné. Milan, Charta, 2009.
Culkin, Kate. Harriet Hosmer: A Cultural Biography. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2010.
Dabakis, Melissa. A Sisterhood of Sculptors: American Artists in Nineteenth-Century Rome. University Park: Pennsylvania University State Press, 2014.
Devereux, Jo. The Making of Women Artists in Victorian England: The Education and Careers of Six Professionals. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2016.
Doy, Gen. Women and Visual Culture in Nineteenth-Century France, 1800–1852. New York: Leicester University Press, 1998.
Dwyer, Britta C. Anna Klumpe: A Turn-of-the-century Painter and Her World. Boston: Northeaster University Press, 1999.
Eidelberg, Martin, et al. A New Light on Tiffany: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls. London: Giles, Ltd., 2007.
Faxon, Alicia, and Sylvia Moore, eds. Pilgrims and Pioneers: New England Women in the Arts. New York: Midmarch Press, 1987.
Garb, Tamar. Sisters of the Brush: Women’s Artistic Culture in Late Nineteenth Century Paris. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994.
Garb, Tamar. Women Impressionists. New York: Rizzoli, 1987.
Harris, Elree I, and Shirley R. Scott. A Gallery of Her Own: An Annotated Bibliography of Women in Victorian Painting. New York: Garland, 1997.
Hellerstein, Erna Olafson, Leslie Parker Hurne, and Karen M. Offen, eds. Victorian Women: A Documentary Account of Women’s Lives in Nineteenth-Century England, France and the United States. Brighton, England: The Harvester Press, 1981.
Marsh, Jan, and Pamela Gerrish Nunn. Pre-Raphaelite Women Artists. New York: Thames & Hudson, 1999.
Masten, April F. Art Work: Women Artists and Democracy in Mid-Nineteenth-Century New York. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008.
Mathews, Nancy Mowll, ed. Cassatt: A Retrospective. NP: Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, 1996.
Owen, Nancy E. Rookwood and the Industry of Art: Women, Culture and Commerce, 1880-1913. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2001.
Pomeroy, Jordana, Rosalind P. Blakesley, and Vladimir Yu Matveyev, eds. An Imperial Collection: Women Artists from the State Hermitage Museum. New York: Merrell, 2003.
Prieto, Laura R. At Home in the Studio: The Professionalization of Women Artists in America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001.
Rago, Denise, and Jonathan Clancy. Rookwood Pottery. Krause Publications, 2008.
Ringelberg, Kirstin. Redefining Gender in American Impressionist Studio Paintings: Work Place/Domestic Space. London: Routledge, 2010.
Swinth, Kirsten. Painting Professionals: Women Artists & the Development of Modern American Art, 1870-1930. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.
Waldrep, Mary Carolyn. By a Woman’s Hand: Illustrators of the Golden Age. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2010.
Webster, Sally. Eve’s Daughter/Modern Woman: A Mural by Mary Cassatt. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2004.
Weisberg, Gabriel P., and Jane R. Becker, eds. Overcoming All Obstacles: The Women of the Académie Julian. The Dahesh Museum and Rutgers University Press, 1999.
Yeldham, Charlotte. Women Artists in Nineteenth-Century France and England: Their Art Education, Exhibition Opportunities and Membership of Exhibiting Societies and Academies, with an Assessment of the Subject Matter of Their Work and Summary Biographies. Two Volumes. New York: Garland, 1984.
Zipf, Catherine W. Professional Pursuits: Women and the American Arts and Crafts Movement. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 2007.
Women Patrons, Collectors & Critics
Bracken, Susan, Andrea M. Gáldy, and Adriana Turpin. Women Patrons and Collectors. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2012.
Clarke, Meaghan. Critical Voices: Women and Art Criticism in Britain, 1880–1905. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005.
Corn, Wanda, ed. Cultural Leadership in America: Art Matronage and Patronage. Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 1997.
Jones, Kimberly Morse. Elizabeth Robins Pennell, Nineteenth-Century Pioneer of Modern Art Criticism. New York: Routeledge, 2016.
Macleod, Dianne. Enchanted Lives, Enchanted Objects: American Women Collectors and the Making of Culture, 1800-1940. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014.
McCarthy, Kathleen D. Women’s Culture: American Philanthropy and Art, 1830-1930. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1991.
Reist, Inge, and Rosella Mamoli Zorzi, eds. Power Underestimated: American Women Art Collectors. Venezia: Marsilio, 2011.
Sherman, Claire Richter, and Adele M. Holcomb, eds. Women as Interpreters of the Visual Arts, 1820-1979. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1981.
Verlaine, Julie. “Expositions and Collections: Women Art Collectors and Patrons in the Age of the Great Expositions.” In Women in International and Universal Exhibitions, 1876-1937, 27-47. New York: Taylor and Francis, 2017.
Women, Art & Society
Berlanstein, Lenard R. Daughters of Eve: A Cultural History of French Theater Women from the Old Régime to the Fin de Siècle. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001.
Dawkins, Heather. The Nude in French Art and Culture, 1870–1910. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Gleadle, Kathryn. British Women in the Nineteenth Century. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001.
Van Hook, Bailey. Angels of Art: Women and Art in American Society, 1876-1914. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996.
Surveys on Women Artists (General)
Anderson, Janet A. Women in the Fine Arts: A Bibliography and Illustration Guide. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1991.
Bachmann, Donna G., and Sherry Piland. Women Artists: An Historical, Contemporary and Feminist Bibliography. Scarecrow Press, 1978.
Balducci, Temma, and Heather Belnap Jensen, eds. Women, Femininity and Public Space in European Visual Culture, 1789-1914. New York: Routledge, 2016.
Bohn, Babette. “From Oxymoron to Virile Paintbrush: Women Artists in Early Modern Europe.” In A Companion to Renaissance and Baroque Art, edited by Babette Bohn and James M. Saslow, 229-49. Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons, 2013.
Borzello, Frances. Seeing Ourselves: Women’s Self-Portraits. London: Thames & Hudson, 2016.
_____. A World of Our Own: Women Artists Since the Renaissance. New York: Harper and Row, 2000.
Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. 3d ed. London: Thames & Hudson, 2002.
Cheney, Liana De Girolami, Alicia Craig, and Kathleen Lucey Russo. Self-Portraits by Women Painters. Brookfield, VT: Ashgate: 2000.
Chiarmonte, Paula. Women Artists in the United States: A Selective Bibliography and Resource Guide on the Fine and Decorative Arts, 1750-1986. Boston: GK Hall, 1990.
Clement, Clara Erskine. Women in the fine arts from the seventh century B.C. to the twentieth century A.D. [Reprint: first published 1904] Williamstown, MA: Corner House Publishers, 1977.
Collins, Lisa Gail. The Art of History: African American Women Artists Engage the Past. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2002.
Courtney-Clarke, Margaret. African Canvas: The Art of West African Women. New York: Rizzoli, 1990.
Dabbs, Julia Kathleen. Life Stories of Women Artists, 1550-1800: an Anthology. Burlington, VT: Ashgate: 2009.
Dunford, Penny. A Biographical Dictionary of Women Artists in Europe and America since 1850 Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press, 1989.
Farrington, Lisa E. Creating Their Own Image: The History of African-American Women Artists. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Fine, Elsa Honig. Women and Art: A History of Women Painters from the Renaissance to the Twentieth Century. Montclair, NJ: Allanheld & Schram, 1978.
Gaze, Delia, ed. Dictionary of Women Artists. Two Volumes. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.
Germaine, Max. A Dictionary of Women Artists of Australia. Roseville East: Craftsman House, 1991.
Harris, Ann Sutherland and Linda Nochlin. Women Artists: 1550–1950. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1976.
Heller, Jules, and Nancy G. Heller. North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary. New York: Routledge, 2013.
Heller, Nancy G. Women Artists: An Illustrated History. 4th ed. New York: Abbeville Press, 2003.
_____. Women Artists: Works from the National Museum of Women in the Arts. New York: Rizzoli, 2000.
Holladay, Willhelmina Cole. A Museum of Their Own: National Museum of Women in the Arts. New York: Abbeville, 2008.
LaDuke, Betty. Africa Through the Eyes of Women Artists. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1991.
Mancoff, Debra N. DANGER! Women Artists at Work. New York: Merrell, 2012.
McCracken, Penny. Women Artists and Designers in Europe Since 1800: An Annotated Bibliography. Two Volumes. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1998.
Moore, Sylvia. Yesterday and Tomorrow: California Women Artists. New York: Midmarch Arts Press, 1989.
Morrill, Rebecca, Karen Wright, and Louisa Elderton. Great Women Artists. New York: Phaidon Press, 2019.
Nochlin, Linda. Women Artists: The Linda Nochlin Reader. Edited by Maura Reilly. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2015.
Rideal, Liz, Whitney Chadwick, and Frances Borzello. Mirror, Mirror: Self-Portraits by Women Artists. New York, NY: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2002.
Robinson, Jontyle Theresa. Bearing Witness: Contemporary Works by African American Women Artists. New York: Rizzoli, 1996.
Rubinstein, Charlotte Streifer. Rubinstein, Charlotte Streifer. American Women Artists: From Early Indian Times to the Present. New York, NY: Avon, 1982.
_____. American Women Sculptors: A History of Women Working in Three Dimensions. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1990.
Sirna, Gail Carolyn. In Praise of the Needlewoman: Embroiderers, Knitters, Lacemakers and Weavers in Art. New York: Merrell, 2006.
Slatkin, Wendy. Women Artists in History: From Antiquity to the Present. San Diego: Cognella Academic Publishing , 2019.
St. Gaudens, Maurine. Emerging from the Shadows: A Survey of Women Artists Working in California, 1860-1960. 4 vols. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd, 2015.
Tufts, Eleanor. American Women Artists: A Bibliography. Two Volumes. New York: Garland Publishing, 1984.
Tsjeng, Zing. Forgotten Women: The Artists. London: Octopus Publishing Group, 2018.
Quinn, Bridget. Broad Strokes: 15 Women Who Made Art and Made History. Chronicle Books, 2017.
Waller, Susan. Women Artists in the Modern Era: A Documentary History. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1991.
Feminism & Art History
Broude, Norma, and Mary Garrard, eds. Feminism and Art History: Questioning the Litany. New York: Harper and Row, 1982.
_____. The Expanding Discourse: Feminism and Art History. New York: Harper and Collins, 1992.
_____. Reclaiming Female Agency: Feminist Art History after Postmodernism. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.
Guerrilla Girls. The Guerrilla Girls’ Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. New York: Penguin Books, 2006.
Nochlin, Linda. Representing Women. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2019.
Parker, Rozsika, and Griselda Pollock. Old Mistresses: Women, Art and Ideology. London: Bloomsbury, 2021.
Archives & Databases
Archives and Resources for Feminist Research
A list of selected archives, books, and online resources related to feminist art and research at the Getty Research Institute.
Artcyclopedia
Database with over 850 women artists with links to image archives, museums, and references!
AWARE: Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions
Non-profit organization whose goal is restoring the presence of 20th-century women artists in the history of art.
Dictionary of Dutch Women
Online dictionary that provides information about women of the Netherlands and its overseas territories.
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art
Exhibition and education facility dedicated to feminist art apart of the Brooklyn Museum. Check out their Feminist Art Base, a digital archive dedicated solely to feminist art.
Epistolae: Medieval Women’s Letters
Epistolae is a collection of letters to and from women in the Middle Ages, from the 4th to the 13th century. The letters, written in Latin, are linked to the names of the women involved, with English translations and, where available, biographical sketches of the women and some description of the subject matter or the historic context of the letter.
Female Artists in History
Amazing Facebook page dedicated to women artists.
Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index
Indexes over 500 journals as well as many essay collections devoted in large part to topics dealing with women, sexuality, or gender.
Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
Essays and works of art of women artists in the MET’s collection.
Monastic Matrix
A scholarly resource for the study of women’s religious communities from 400 to 1600 CE.
National Museum of Women in the Arts
The only major museum solely dedicated to promoting women artists. Explore their collection of 4,500 artworks by more than 1,000 women artists.
RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History
Archive of Dutch and Flemish artists. Explore by artist here.
Web Gallery of Art
Explore their Women Artists Tour that has works of art by 80 women artists. They even offer a downloadable MS Excel spreadsheet highlighting biographical information of each artist in their collection!
WikiArt
Visual art encyclopedia page dedicated to female artists. Designed to bring recognition to the achievements of women artists of all periods and nationalities, distinguishing them within the male-dominated art world.
Women Artists Archives National Directory (WAAND)
Web directory to U.S. archival collections of primary source materials by and about women visual artists active in the U.S. since 1945.