Women Picturing Women: From Personal Spaces to Public Ventures

How female artists have depicted women's lives, from the 17th century to the 1960s

Selected from the rich holdings of the Loeb Art Center at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, Women Picturing Women explores the common themes and complex visions that emerge when women depict other women. Portraits and domestic scenes are often the vehicles through which these artists grappled with narratives found in religion, mythology or social critique, focusing on motifs of both intimacy and isolation in varying degrees. With works that range from the 17th century to the close of the 1960s, Women Picturing Women provides a varied set of examples that speak to the unique and frequently underemphasized artistic lens through which women viewed their female peers, with further scholarship on each artist and her work.
Artists include: Angelica Kauffman, Berthe Morisot, Jesse Tarbox Beals, Lilly Martin Spencer, Alice Neel, Diane Arbus and Sylvia Sleigh.