Now you see us!

It was a question aimed at arousing curiosity and then rage, as Nochlin proceeded to outline the many factors which have excluded women from the art world for centuries. Too numerous to list within a brief paragraph, these barriers include stifling cultural expectations regarding the role and economic autonomy of women and practical barriers such as the lack of access to training. It was a pioneering essay, which paved the way to a reassessment of the contribution of women artists and indeed of how the history of art itself is written and how works are evaluated.

By now, of course, we can argue that much has changed, with works by artists such as Frida Kahlo and Georgia O’Keefe selling for millions. However, this does not mean that Nochlin’s points have become redundant. Indeed, the title of Tate Britain’s recent exhibition of women’s art, Now You See Us, suggests that the works of many women artists still languish in obscurity, waiting for our attention and reappraisal. The burdens of old assumptions and denied opportunity remain frustratingly intractable.

The forthcoming Welsh Sale, as usual, includes many works by Welsh women artists, who nevertheless have or are continuing to make their mark: a Gwen John (1876 – 1939) watercolour, for instance or a Shani Rhys James (b. 1953) self-portrait. There are also seven works by Claudia Williams (1933 – 2014), an artist who blithely bypassed that supposed enemy of art, “the pram in the hall”, by making domestic life and the company of children central to much of her work.

By the Twentieth Century, some of the barriers to women becoming professional artists were being dismantled; it became easier to attend art schools and make a living from their talents. It is therefore both striking and refreshing to find among the Welsh Sale’s current lots examples of the work of an earlier pioneer. Buddug Anwylini Pughe (1857 – 1939) was almost twenty years older than the similarly single-minded Gwen John. Daring to challenge convention, she clearly considered her work to be more than a respectable “accomplishment”: she studied at the Liverpool School of Art, became a professional artist and travelled widely, returning to settle in her native Aberdyfi in 1905.

Incidentally, she had a remarkable middle name - one which means “dear to us”. In supporting her desire for independence and ambition to paint, her middle-class Victorian family amply proved how dear to them she truly was. The fact that this encouragement should be at all notable also shows how – and to everyone’s loss - the careers of so many women artists depended as much upon circumstance as on their own creativity.

Below are a few paintings from some of the female artists in our November 2024 Welsh Sale auction. There are many more including Muriel Delahaye, Glenys Cour, Mary Lloyd Jones.

View all paintings from these four artists in our November 16th Welsh Sale