In the 19th century, Paris was the capital of modern art — and according to Mary Cassatt, the only city where women artists were taken seriously. This course explores how painters such as Adelaide Labille-Guiard and Rosa Bonheur, Berthe Morisot, Elizabeth Jane Gardner, and Virginie Demon-Breton managed to become successful in their lifetime.

Online course (Zoom)

Mondays, from 1 to 3 pm

6 weeks, starting on 1 June and ending on 6 July 2026

Cost: £84 (scroll down for payment button)

If you miss a session, you will have the slides and “video-notes” to catch up.

This five-session course examines the work of women artists in 19th-century Paris, a city that offered both opportunity and restriction. Denied access to the École des Beaux-Arts until 1897, women nonetheless forged ambitious careers within and beyond the Salon system.

We will start with the many women of the Neo-Classical movement, such as Adelaide Labille-Guiard and Marie Guillemine Benoist, and will conclude with the women of the Impressionist and Naturalist movements, such as Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, Marie Bracquemond, Marie Bashkirtseff, Virgine Demont-Breton, and Louise-Catherine Breslau. We will study French-born artists as well as many women who came from abroard, all brilliant in many different styles!

As we explore their lives and art, we will also examine elements from the context such as access to art classes in Paris in the 19th century, art criticism and collecting, and gendered expectations in art and society. Thus, the course also addresses broader questions of patronage, domesticity, modernity, and the construction of the artistic canon, revealing how women were not peripheral to 19th-century art, but central to its transformation.

Picture above: Marie Denise Villers, Marie Joséphine Charlotte du Val d’Ognes, 1801, NYC, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Cost: £84

Payment is via Stripe with your bank card. It is easy and safe. If necessary, refunds can be processed with Stripe. Once you’ve paid, I get an email, and I will then email you the course’s Zoom link and further details. Please check the terms and conditions to see the policy about cancellations and refunds. If you have any issues or questions, do not hesitate to get in touch (see “contact” above).

To enrol, and pay £84, please click on the button below. Thanks!