18C Lady as Minerva a Goddess of War - Polish

1725 Unknown Polish artist,  Portrait of Elżbieta Sieniawska née Lubomirska as Minerva.

Early artists painted their contemporaries somewhat like allegories, & often painters would put the faces of their patrons or sponsors on the bodies of the saints.  These came to be called donor portraits.  Allegorical portraits remained popular; and as time passed, they expanded to show the sitter as a Greek goddess, or muse, or nymph in in a rustic setting.  

These allegories grew to include strong portraits of Minerva wearing idealized attire, nothing like the clothing worn by real women of the period.  Dressing scantily or provocatively or as a warrior would have been frowned upon if a proper lady was sitting for a portrait in contemporary clothing, but if she were posing as an ancient goddess, a little skin or a few weapons were perfectly acceptable.

Minerva was the Roman goddess of wisdom & sponsor of arts, trade, & war! She was born of Jupiter with weapons. She was fierce, and she was brilliant.  

From the 2nd century BC onwards, the Romans also associated her with the Greek goddess Athena, the virgin goddess of music, poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving, crafts, & magic.

WOMEN WORKING - -Women Sewing Outdoors - Franch William-Adolphe Bouguereau 1825-1905

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (French Academic painter, 1825-1905) The Little Knitter 1882

Full disclosure - Bouguereau's depictions of children & young women knitting & sewing & pouting & even flirting make me very uncomfortable. Just saying...

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (French Academic painter, 1825-1905) Young Worker 1869

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (French Academic painter, 1825-1905) Little Knitter 1879

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (French Academic painter, 1825-1905) The Knitting Woman 1869

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (French Academic painter, 1825-1905) Sewing

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (French Academic painter, 1825-1905) The Spinner

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (French Academic painter, 1825-1905)

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (French Academic painter, 1825-1905) Young Girl Sewing

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (French Academic painter, 1825-1905)

Women by Czech artist Alphonse Maria Mucha 1860-1939

Alphonse Maria Mucha (Czech artist, 1860-1939) The Red Cape 1902

Although this artist is famous for his highly stylized Art Nouveau illustrations, I am more attracted to a few of his powerful winter paintings & to his personal family portraits.

Alphonse Maria Mucha (Czech artist, 1860-1939) Marushka, The Artist's Wife 1905

Alphonse Maria Mucha (1860-1939) was a Czech painter & decorative artist, best known for his distinct style & his images of women. He produced many paintings, illustrations, advertisements, & designs.

Alphonse Maria Mucha (Czech artist, 1860-1939) Girl with Loose Hair and Tulips 1920

Mucha studied in France & was in America from 1906-1910.

Alphonse Maria Mucha (Czech artist, 1860-1939) Christmas in America 1906

Mucha spent many years working on what he considered his life's fine art masterpiece, The Slav Epic (Slovanská epopej), a series of twenty huge paintings depicting the history of the Czech & Slavic people in general, which he bestowed to the city of Prague in 1928.

Alphonse Maria Mucha (Czech artist, 1860-1939) Winter Night 1920

The rising tide of fascism in the late 1930s led to Mucha's works, as well as his Slavic nationalism, being denounced in the press as "reactionary."

Alphonse Maria Mucha (Czech artist, 1860-1939) Woman with a Burning Candle 1933

When German troops marched into Czechoslovakia in the spring of 1939, Mucha was among the first persons to be arrested by the Gestapo. During the course of his interrogation, the aging artist fell ill with pneumonia.

Alphonse Maria Mucha (Czech artist, 1860-1939) Jaroslava and Jiri, The Artist's Children 1919

Though eventually released, he never recovered from this event or from seeing his homeland invaded & overcome. He died in Prague on 14 July 1939, of a lung infection.

17C Woman as The Seasons - French artist Pierre Gobert 1662-1744

Pierre Gobert (French artist, 1662-1744)  Daughters of Henri Jules de Bourbon as the Four Seasons

Women Working Outdooirs - England George Clausen 1852-1944

Sir George Clausen (English rustic naturalist painter, 1852-1944) The Girl At the Gate

Sir George Clausen (English rustic naturalist painter, 1852-1944)

Sir George Clausen (English rustic naturalist painter, 1852-1944)

Sir George Clausen (English rustic naturalist painter, 1852-1944) Serendipity

Sir George Clausen (English rustic naturalist painter, 1852-1944)

Sir George Clausen (English rustic naturalist painter, 1852-1944) Flora the Gypsy Flower Seller

Sir George Clausen (English rustic naturalist painter, 1852-1944)

Sir George Clausen (English rustic naturalist painter, 1852-1944)

Sir George Clausen (English rustic naturalist painter, 1852-1944)

Sir George Clausen (English rustic naturalist painter, 1852-1944) Noon in the Hayfield 1897

Sadly, this is the Last of my collection of 18C Women Around the World

Costumes de Differents Pays, by Jacques Grasset de Saint-Sauveur (France, 1757-1810) c 1797 Hand-Colored Engraving from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

By the end of the 18C, worldwide exploration & colonization by Europeans were fairly commonplace, enabling the late 18C & 19C public to catch a glimpse of the clothing & customs of other peoples.

Women Spinning - Time to Head Outdoors to Make a Skein

Unwinding thread from the drop spindle making a skein. MS Fr. 599, f. 48, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris 1400s

Eons ago just as today, a textile was a fibrous substance, such as wool, cotton, flax, or silk, that can be spun into yarn & woven or knitted into cloth.  Stone Age peoples wove nets, baskets, mats, & belts out of reeds, grasses, & strips of animal hides - and eventually led to the creation of fabrics to substitute for the animal skins which often served as human clothing. Ancient textiles were made mostly of linen, cotton, wool, & silk. Spinning & weaving were mentioned in the Bible. 

Pamphila collecting cocoons of silk worms and spinning silk.  France, N. (Rouen)

From Exodus 35:25 Every skilled woman spun with her hands & brought ...... All the women who were skilled in sewing & spinning prepared blue, purple, & scarlet thread, & fine linen cloth... 

From Proverbs 31:19 In her hand she holds the distaff...Her hands are busy spinning thread, her fingers twisting fiber. ... She extends her hands to the spinning staff, & her hands hold the spindle...

Weaving, spinning, and combing perhaps flax. MS Fr. 598, f. 70v, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris 1400s France

As civilizations developed, the people, the fibers, & the different methods tools invented for turning the fibers into cloth traveled to different parts of the world, & many ideas on making textiles were exchanged among various peoples. Spinning is the simple process of drawing out a twisting of a few fibers together into a continuous length, & winding them into a ball or onto a stick. There is archaeological evidence to suggest that spinning was practiced in Europe at least as early as 20,000 years ago. In the early days of spinning, the drawing out & twisting of the fibers was done by hand; later the winding stick itself was modified by the addition of a weight, or whorl, at its lower end (which gave increased momentum). Thus a modified winding stick became the spinning implement, or hand spindle.

Woman carrying a distaff under her arm while feeding chickens. Luttrell Psalter, British Library, London 1300s England

Meeting of Saint Margaret and the Prefect Olibrius by Jean Fouquet. 1452 -60 for Étienne Chevalier.  A common image in medieval manuscripts is a woman spinning while standing, often the lady is depicted spinning wool amongst sheep.

Unknown artist MS. Fr 599, f. 40 French, 1400s Woman spinning flax using a drop spindle and distaff.

Arthur Devis (English Painter, c1712-1787) Sarah Lascelles (1656-59–1743), Mrs Christopher Lethieullier

18C Women Around the World

Costumes de Differents Pays, by Jacques Grasset de Saint-Sauveur (France, 1757-1810) c 1797 Hand-Colored Engraving from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

By the end of the 18C, worldwide exploration & colonization by Europeans were fairly commonplace, enabling the late 18C & 19C public to catch a glimpse of the clothing & customs of other peoples.

Women Working - Gathering 13C Fruit

1200 Labours of the Months, September, Calendarium, Liber Psalmorum, Cantica with prayers Hymns, etc., Southern Germany, Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 30

Most iconography of months evolved from Medieval & early Renaissance art depicting in 12 scenes the rural activities that commonly took place in the months of the year. These early illustrations are important to the development of landscape painting.

A typical simple scheme might include:
January - Feasting
February - Sitting by a fire
March - Pruning trees, or digging
April - Planting, enjoying the country or picking flowers
May - Hawking, courtly love
June - Hay harvest
July - Wheat harvest
August - Wheat threshing
September - Harvesting Grapes or Orchard Fruit
October - Ploughing or sowing
November - Gathering acorns for pigs
December - Killing pigs, baking

But there were many variations, especially in major wine-growing areas, where more wine related scenes were included. Illustrations from further south, such as Italian cycles, often advance the agricultural scenes a month earlier than ones from the more northern Low countries or England.

18C Women Around the World

Costumes de Differents Pays, by Jacques Grasset de Saint-Sauveur (France, 1757-1810) c 1797 Hand-Colored Engraving from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

By the end of the 18C, worldwide exploration & colonization by Europeans were fairly commonplace, enabling the late 18C & 19C public to catch a glimpse of the clothing & customs of other peoples.

Women Working - Doing 19C Laundry - Camille Pissarro 1830-1903

 Camille Pissarro (French artist, 1830-1903) Laundresses at Eragny

 Camille Pissarro (French artist, 1830-1903) The Laundry Woman

 Camille Pissarro (French artist, 1830-1903) Laundresses at Eragny

 Camille Pissarro (French artist, 1830-1903) Laundress at Eragny

 Camille Pissarro (French artist, 1830-1903) Laundress on the Banks of the River

Camille Pissarro (French artist, 1830-1903) The Laundry Woman

 Camille Pissarro (French artist, 1830-1903) Woman Hanging Laundry

Camille Pissarro (French artist, 1830-1903) Woman Hanging Laundry Study

 Camille Pissarro (French artist, c 1830-1903)  Les laveuses

Camille Pissarro (French artist, 1830-1903) Family Garden

18C Women Around the World

Costumes de Differents Pays, by Jacques Grasset de Saint-Sauveur (France, 1757-1810) c 1797 Hand-Colored Engraving from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

By the end of the 18C, worldwide exploration & colonization by Europeans were fairly commonplace, enabling the late 18C & 19C public to catch a glimpse of the clothing & customs of other peoples.