IF YOU think balancing a career with motherhood is exclusively a 21st-century challenge, then you’ll be astonished by The Walker’s new exhibition.
The female painters and sculptors featured in the Rise of Women Artists had to smash deep-set prejudices to win recognition for their work, and many of them did it with at least a couple of kids in tow.
Take Lavinia Fontana, considered to be one of the most talented altarpiece painters of the late 16th century.
Taught the craft by her artist father, Prospero Fontana, alongside her brothers, she commanded large fees for her works and even painted Pope Paul V.
Along the way she gave birth to 11 children, although only three of them outlived her.
Fontana, with a supportive father and born into a culture that expected girls showing talent to join the family painting business, was more fortunate than many female artists who came centuries after her.
Yet, this exhibition, made up of works from National Museums Liverpool’s collection, would not have been possible if it wasn’t for the foresight of the Walker’s founders.
“There’s been a lot of focus on women’s contribution to art lately including an exhibition at the Pompidou Centre in Paris,” says Laura MacCulloch, curator of The Rise of Women Artists.
“But whereas the Pompidou has had to recently buy works by women, we started collecting them in 1871.”
That year, the Liverpool Autumn Exhibition was founded as a rival to the London-based Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition. With a future gallery in mind, its committee bought three paintings from those on display.
