The Eclectic Light Company [Unofficial]In memoriam Mary Cassatt: 3 1887-1902
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://eclecticlight.co/2026/06/14/in-memoriam-mary-cassatt-3-1887-1902/
The Great Ladies of Impressionism
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://eclecticlight.co/2026/06/13/the-great-ladies-of-impressionism/
Hotspur🏳️🌈🇺🇦"Green and Blue: The Dancer," James Abbott McNeill Whistler, c. 1893.
Whistler (1834-1903) was famous for disdaining moral didacticism in painting; he believed in art for art's sake. Which is why the famous painting of his mother, being viewed as a sentimental tribute, would infuriate him; it wasn't, it was just an exercise in color.
When he painted this, he was living in Paris and was at the top of his career, doing commissions for many wealthy collectors as well as winning the esteem of many critics as well. (Except famous art critic John Ruskin, who gave a Whistler painting a derisive review, prompting Whistler to sue for libel...he won, but only a tiny sum.)
One of his fascinations in this period was the female form in diaphanous drapery, caught in dramatic poses. This worked well for him, experimenting with color and tone, while paying tribute to Greek and Japanese art, which he loved.
From the Art Institute of Chicago.
Project GutenbergBorn in 1810, Margaret Fuller Was Labeled a Child Prodigy. She Later Used Her Intellect to Ask Important Questions About Women’s Role in America
Her writing posed the novel premise: What does it mean to be a woman? Her early death meant she never saw the movement she inspired
by Megan Marshall
Books by Margaret Fuller at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/2829
"Ernesta," Cecilia Beaux, 1914.
Beaux (1855-1942) was a very successful portrait artist at the turn of the 20th century, so much so that some referred to her as "the female Sargent." In truth, many feel her on a level with Sargent.
Born to a well-off Philadelphia family, she studied there and in Paris (of course) before returning to the US to make a splash as a society portraitist.
Here we have her favorite niece, Ernesta, in a friendly and casual pose. It's especially fun as twenty years earlier she had painted Ernesta as a toddler. Here she is very much in the environment of a typical society belle, a huge contrast to Beaux, who regarded herself as a "New Woman," an early feminist who sought education and self-reliance, rather than only being a housewife and mother.
Happy Portrait Monday!
From the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
#Art #CeciliaBeaux #WomenArtists #PortraitMonday #WomenInArt #HerStory
In memoriam Mary Cassatt: 2, 1880-81
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://eclecticlight.co/2026/06/08/in-memoriam-mary-cassatt-2-1880-81/
During the Revolution, American Women Fought for Freedom, Spied on the British, Cared for the Sick and Fell in Love. A New Exhibition Reveals Their Rich Wartime Stories
by Meilan Solly
Books in American Revolutionary War at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/bookshelf/196
The Private Worlds of Charlotte Brontë and Octavia E. Butler
Behind The Huntington Library’s glass cases, the layers of motherhood, career, friendship, family, and loss are revealed in personal objects.
by Hannah Benson
Books by Charlotte Brontë at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/408
Guide to the classics: Margaret Cavendish’s The Blazing World pioneered speculative fiction, 400 years ago
The Blazing World is a testament to how far the written novel has travelled in the past 400 years. A literary time capsule, it holds within it the origins of a genre we now call speculative fiction.
by Donna Mazza
Books by Margaret Cavendish at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/46554
"Lady in Red," József Rippl-Rónai, 1898.
Hungarian artist Rippl-Rónai (1861-1927) doesn't get remembered the way he should.
After being trained as a pharmacist, he decided to study art in Budapest, and in 1888 he won a grant to study in Paris, where he joined up with my beloved Nabis. Under their tutelage, he had his first successes as an artist, and their influence stayed with him.
He returned to Budapest, and while it took him a while to get some recognition, he eventually was a success and now most historians regard him as Hungary's first artistic modernist.
He was a believer that his entire life should be reflecting his art, even how he dressed, and later in life he became fascinated by interior design and stained glass...which makes sense with this image, which could be a stained-glass window. He also stuck to the Nabi idea that art shouldn't be afraid to simply be beautiful.
From the Iparművészeti Múzeum, Budapest.
#Art #JozsefRipplRonai #LesNabis #WomenInArt #Modernism #ArtForArtsSake #BeautyForBeautysSake
