The Hidden Voice

The title of this post is called “The Hidden Voice” because women artists in this century didn’t really have a voice. The two women that we have decided to write about are women who made a significant attempt to making their voices heard. In my opinion, the best way to do so is by using art because it can be intreperated in any way.    

            Louise Jopling was a leading female artist in Victorian London who was part of the most advanced artistic circles of her time. She was born in Manchester in 1843 and later moved to Paris where she studied art under the romantic portrait and landscape painter—Charles Chaplin. She exhibited most of her artwork at the Royal Academy and the Paris Salon. She was also a teacher of art at her school and her students photographed her to learn.

Jopling was a versatile artist of wide artistic, literary, and social interests. She exhibited her work alongside male professional artists. She was the first women to be admitted to the Royal Society of British Artists in 1901. Even though Jopling faced many problems because of her status as a women, she still managed to lead achieve a status beyond genteel amateurism. One of Louise Joplings’ goals was to define what it meant to be a proffesional women artist. She was inspired because of her many attempts to establish a career and belief. She thought that women should be educated on equal terms with men. Jopling joined an elite group of femal artists who achieved public success at mainstream art institutions. An interesting thing that Jopling did was that she spoke the male language of professional art practice with the awareness that her gender set her apart. 

           Another woman who never received recognition for her paintings of landscapes is Susie M. Barstow. She, like most recognized male artists, attended Hudson River School. Barstow painted still-life images and landscapes of nature in and near New York.  Unlike many other female artists, Barstow was not related and of no connection to any male artists; she alone managed to paint as beautifully as she did and able to attend the school on her own. The reason I find Barstow so interesting and important to the literature of 19^th century literature of America is due to her ability to paint Nature in a picturesque and sublime manner.

            One example of her oil paintings would be Mountain View with Breaking Sun. When analyzing the painting it is difficult to ignore how the clouds disperse, letting rays of sunlight hit the water and an island.  In modern media, clouds dispersing and rays of sunlight are symbols of a divine entity—God and heaven.  Her paintings also have many levels of depth. There are taller trees that seem almost as tall as the shy-high mountains in the background; the distance of those trees being closer creates this illusion. The mountains also seem to be touching the heavens due to the clouds shadowing their midsections. One final aspect of the painting is the water. The lake appears to be claiming as much land as possible. It does not look like there are any shores at the base of the mountain or at the island; it seems like land is barely keeping its head above water. This feeling of sublime is then tendered by the connection water has to purity; baptisms.

            As a female myself, I found it inspiring how women, during such an oppressive time, managed to travel and paint Nature and natures beauties. Not only does she paint the magnificent beauty of earth but also seems to paint the influence of Christianity on art; whether this was her intention or not.