This third and final collection “The Portrayal of Powerful Women In Visual Art: A Study Spanning Ancient Egypt, Baroque and Renaissance Periods, Through Impressionism, and Pop and Modern Art” has been building up since the beginning of this project. I cannot stress enough how passionate I am about representing women as strong and powerful beings and I think it is so important to look back over history and find the times that was done despite attitudes towards women. Women have always been viewed as the weaker sex, until very recently in fact. However, the quiet and prevailing strength of women has a thread that is woven back to the dawn of time. As I have stated in a previous collection, visual art is an important way to document our collective present so that future generations may have greater understanding of our ways of thinking, values and more. My goal for these collections was to exemplify the power that was evident in a woman over time and I feel that I have achieved that. This collection spans time and cultures including ancient Egypt, the Renaissance and Baroque periods, Impressionism, and pop and modern art. Influential, resilient, and robust women always have and always will have a role to play in visual art.

For my museum paper, I took a close look at impressionism, especially Claude Monet (see the final tile in the collection). “Camille Monet on a Garden Bench” by Claude Monet is an oil on canvas, impressionist painting capturing Monet’s first wife, Camille, whom he painted often.  Impressionism came to be in France in the middle of the nineteenth century and Claude Monet is one of the names you immediately associate with this style of painting. Monet is a household name in the realm of impressionist painting and “Camille Monet on a Garden Bench” is just one of the many famous works he produced in his lifetime. In this painting, her expression is one of quiet defeat and her large, dark eyes seem exhausted as if she is mentally somewhere else while her gaze is fixed directly on the viewer. Her body is hunched over rather than up straight to greet her neighbor. The viewer feels her sadness and I think that is in part because of the contrast in the image. The rest of the painting is bright, sunny and filled with color, things associated with happiness and lightness. Camille is clothed in a dark, heavy looking dress seemingly under the shadow of a tree which I interpret as the metaphorical cloud hanging over her with the sad news of her fathers passing. Monet captures her strength and femininity all at once.

Pop and modern art seem much more literal in what it expresses and is an excellent reflection of society at that point in time. While women still weren’t considered equal, they were still being depicted in visual art and it was typically women of high standard and fame. These women were respected in their fields and were considered icons of their generation; women like Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, even Queen Elizabeth II. Visual art and its representation of a woman’s place in society still had a long way to go, but by looking at the women, we can tell they know their strength and that is what’s most important.

What I have put together in this collection represents the significance of women at points through history and I hope you will take something away from it. I hope it will spark debate, deeper thought, an emotional response, or even desire to learn more about the culture or time period being represented.

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