Enfilade

This evening at The National Gallery (the lecture is fully booked, but it will be live-streamed) . . .

Paris Spies-Gans | ‘The Spirit of a Particular Age’

Women Artists and the Challenges of an Integrated Art History

Online and in-person, The National Gallery, London, 13 March 2025, 6pm GMT

Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Self Portrait in a Straw Hat, 1782 (London: The National Gallery).

Women artists are having a moment—featuring in exhibitions, headlines, and auctions. Art historians have, however, long known of their existence. Why do we continue to treat these creators as rare, exciting discoveries? This lecture will consider the complicated legacies surrounding women artists and notions of historical truth. Taking Anna Jameson’s concept of the ‘Spirit of a Particular Age’ as a jumping-off point, it will explore the tensions that often accompany studies of women in their own places and times and suggest a path towards a more integrated—and hopefully lasting—narrative of art: one that includes women as the prominent historical players they regularly were. Sometimes this entails uncomfortable work, such as questioning canonical narratives about women and art. However, embracing such complexities can ultimately lead to a deeper, fuller understanding of the cultural and gender dynamics that shaped the past—and continue to influence the present.

The lecture will also be live-streamed; please book tickets here»

Paris A. Spies-Gans holds a PhD in History from Princeton University, an MA in Art History from the Courtauld Institute of Art, and a BA from Harvard University. Her research has been supported by fellowships from the Harvard Society of Fellows and the J. Paul Getty Trust, among other institutions. Her first book, A Revolution on Canvas: The Rise of Women Artists in Britain and France, 1760–1830 (PMC/YUP 2022), has won several prizes in the fields of British art history and 18th-century studies and was named one of the top art books of 2022 by The Art Newspaper and The Conversation. She is currently working on her second book, A New Story of Art (US/Doubleday and UK/Viking).