On Friday 04 April 2025, Members were invited to bring a presentation of their own Favourite Female Artists to the final History of Art Session in the current course. This time, Jennifer took a back seat assisting with the changing of slides rather than leading the session.

We started with Louise whose favourite artist was the American Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) – see top – with many examples of her work, some of which we were told had been bought by Degas and then used by him as inspiration!

Hilary’s choice was Gwen John (1876-1939) who was elder sister to Augustus John. She had been able to study at the Slade School of Art before moving to Paris. She produced many paintings of her room in Paris, with different seasons and different light. One of these paintings appears on the front cover of the novel “Keeping the World Away” by Margaret Foster.

Linda then introduced us to Dame Laura Knight RA (1877-1970), one of the first lady members of the Royal Academy to have the full rights of an academician. As well as one of the first female nudes painted by a female artist, we were also introduced to her many paintings featuring the life of gypsy travellers, and to her paintings as a war artist – especially her paintings of the Nuremberg Trials.

Chris introduced us to Vanessa Bell (1879-1961), the older sister of Virginia Wolf. She had studied at the South Kensington School of Art and whilst an accomplished artist, she had concentrated on interior design, textile design and pottery designs. There were paintings as well, including a portrait of her sister and a self-portrait shortly before her death.

Bernard introduced us to Sonia Delauney (1885-1979) who had concentrated on fabric design in France, and was the first woman to feature in a retrospective exhibition in the Louvre. Her origins however had been in Ukraine after which she was adopted, and moved to Saint Petersburg before travelling to France. She designed many quilts before moving on to dress fabrics.

Val introduced us to Else Taterka (1886-1967), an accomplished German artist who had taught at the Reimann School of Art in Berlin, and later the Reimann School of Art in London. Her speciality was poster design, typefaces and advertising materials. Although a very capable artist, she was better known to Val as Aunt Else. During WW2, she had been exempted from internment because her advertising skills were used as part of the country’s war effort.

Frieda is an accomplished artist in her own right, so she concentrated on the rationale for people visiting art galleries, and she explained why she thought people appreciate art, and what they get from a visit to an Art Gallery.

Viv introduced us to Beryl Cook OBE (1926-2008), her choice of female artist. She described Beryl’s work as “Ruben With Jokes”, explaining her background and the role of her husband in the Merchant Navy. Her paintings feature people of ample proportions and many of the paintings drew laughs from the audience.

Evelyn had chosen Georgia O’Keefe (1887-1986) as her female artist. Georgia was known as the Mother of Modernism, and after growing up on a farm in Wisconsin, she had moved to Chicago and then New York. Of 2,000 works, she is most famous for paintings of Jimsonweed flowers, with one being sold for $34.4 million, perhaps the highest value achieved by a female artist.

Marion introduced us to Tarsila do Aramal (1886-1973), a Brazilian artist who painted her local environment, villages, favelas and wildlife. Of particular interest was her self-portrait in an orange dress, but she had also painted portraits of distinguished people in Brazil.

Peter closed this selection with an interesting group of young female artists who entitled themselves as the Guerilla Girls (even though they were wearing Gorilla Masks). Their objective was to achieve gender equality in art, including tackling the imbalance of nudes by gender in art galleries, and the imbalance of displayed artists by gender.

This was the final session in this course, and the lecture closed with a short presentation by Diana on behalf of all the members attending this run of lectures since January.