Art History 101: Women Artists From History
I think it’s important to share some women artists who don’t get as much recognition as the male artists from their time. It was an absolute pleasure to research each of these trail-blazing women and learn about their lives.
There is much more to them than the few-sentence summary I provided, so I encourage you to check out the source(s) for each artist to learn more about their life both inside and outside of the art world.
I hope you enjoy getting to know each artist as much as I did and would love to hear your favorites from this list – leave them in the comments at the bottom!
1. Hilma Af Klint (1862-1944)
The Ten Largest, Youth (1907) Photo by Albin Dahlström
Hilma Af Klint was a Swedish abstract painter who studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm. Her works featured brightly colored, rounded shapes on large canvases.
Af Klint did not exhibit her works during her lifetime because she believed the world was not ready for her style. She asked that it not be shown for 20 years after her death.
Hilma Af Klint died in 1944 and her international debut was not until 1986 – 42 years after her death.
Source: Guggenheim Museum
2. Jeanne Hébuterne (1898-1920)
Self Portrait (1916)
Jeanne Hébuterne was a French artist whose legacy has been sadly overshadowed by her more famous partner, Amedeo Modigliani, who was also an artist.
She studied at the Académie Colarossi to pursue an art career, influenced by her brother, who was a painter. Hébuterne’s family, namely her brother, was exceptionally protective of her personal life and possessions, including her paintings.
Her paintings remained unseen until an exhibition in Venice in 2000.
Source: archive.org
3. Judith Leyster (1609-1660)
Self-Portrait (1630)
Judith Leyster was a Dutch Golden Age painter from Haarlem. She began her art career in her late teens, but there is not much known about her artistic training.
Leyster was the first known woman to join Saint Luke’s Guild of Haarlem and had three students.
Her works were typically genre paintings, similar to other Dutch painters at the time (e.g., Frans Hals), but she also painted still lifes.
Source: National Gallery of Art
4. June Leaf (1929-2024)
Mother/Ballroom (1978)
June Leaf is an American artist who splits her time between New York and Mabou, Nova Scotia. June passed away in July 2024 at the age of 94.
There is a lot of movement in her work, which ties back to her early life as a ballet dancer. Leaf says when she draws, she is dancing, which is evident in her work (Rosemary Feitelberg, wwd.com).
Sources: WWD.com | Whitney.org
5. Lavinia Fontana (1552-1614)
Portrait of Costana Alidosi (1595)
Lavinia Fontana was born in Bologna, Italy, and is said to be the first female artist in history (although there may be many others who just weren’t known).
She was a portrait painter who often painted noblewomen from Bologna. Fontana’s husband was his assistant and the stay-at-home dad to their 11 children while she worked as an artist.
Source: National Museum of Women in the Arts
6. Lee Krasner (1908-1984)
Icarus (1964)
Lee Krasner was born in Brooklyn, NY and was a leader in the Abstract Expressionism movement. She worked in a large range of mediums, including collage and large-scale paintings. Krasner was part of the American Abstract Artists group where she met and befriended many other known artists.
Source: MoMA
7. Leonora Carrington (1917-2011)
Figuras Fantásticas a Caballo (2011). © 2019 Estate of Leonora Carrington / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Leonora Carrington was a Surrealist painter born in England. She lived in many different places, including Spain, Paris, New York, and Mexico City; spending most of her adult life in the latter. Her first solo gallery show was at the New York’s Pierre Matisse Gallery when she was 31 years old. Carrington’s subject matter was typically Surrealist narrative scenes, some of which were painted on animal skins.
8. Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010)
Maman (1999)
Louise Bourgeois was born in Paris in the early 1900s. She started out with printmaking and painting, but is now mostly known for her large, organic sculptures. Bourgeois took a break from art (painting and printmaking) to explore psychoanalysis, but jumped back into art with a new style – her sculpture work. I’ve seen one of her famous spider sculptures in person, which is both stunning and horrifying.
Source: MoMA
9. Louise Nevelson (1899-1988)
Big Black (1963)
Louise Nevelson was a Russian artist who moved to the U.S. when she was a child. She moved to New York after her teen years to study the arts, ranging from drama to painting. She worked as an assistant to Diego Rivera, who inspired the work she showed at her first solo exhibition, which depicted Mayan imagery. Today, Nevelson is known for her incredible sculptures – stacked wooden boxes which were filled with trinkets and spray painted a solid color (typically black, white, gold, or silver).
Source: Smithsonian American Art Museum
10. Maruja Mallo (1902-1995)
Naturaleza Viva (1943)
Maruja Mallo was a Spanish artist who studied at the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid.
She had her first solo exhibition at the age of 26. A few years later, she moved to Paris and was influenced by the Surrealism she saw there.
Mallo’s work celebrates female sexuality and she wanted to depict women as more than just their looks and sex appeal.
Sources: Aware Women Artists | Wikipedia
11. Mary Cassatt (1844-1926)
Children in a Garden (The Nurse) (1878)
Mary Cassatt was an Impressionist painter and printmaker born in Pennsylvania. Growing up, she lived in Europe and visited many different countries during her childhood.
Later on in life, Cassatt moved to Paris with her mother where she privately studied with masters from Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
Her work features a large range of different subjects but is most known for her depictions of mothers and their children.
Source: marycassatt.org
12. Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899)
The Horse Hair (1853) | Photo by dmadeo
Rosa Bonheur was a French painter who learned painting at a young age, thanks to her father who was also a painter. She quickly became successful and was only 19 when she had her first exhibition.
Much of her work depicts animals in movement and her painting The Horse Fair (1853) is considered to be her masterpiece.
Sources: National Gallery
13. Sofonisba Anguissola (1532-1625)
Self Portrait at the Easel (1556)
Sofonisba Anguissola was an Italian portrait artist during the Renaissance who often painted self-portraits and portraits of her family.
She was actually a lady-in-waiting to the Queen of Spain in 1559, but still managed to paint a dozen self-portraits during that time. She studied with other artists, despite women not being able to become apprentices to master artists in Italy during this time.
Source: smarthistory.org
14. Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980)
Portrait de Marjorie Ferry (1932)
Tamara de Lempicka was an artist during the Roaring Twenties and part of the Art Deco art movement. She was born in Poland but lived in Paris, the U.S., and Mexico.
She painted Art Deco-style portraits of people from all different professions, from writers to scientists to industrialists.
Source: delempicka.org