#woman

Art the community tagged “woman” — see what people make of it.

Erisava Staff Aug 6

Portrait of Maude Abrantes by Amedeo Modigliani, 1908

Portrait of Maude Abrantes

Hecht Museum · wikidata.org

Public domain

Not much seems to survive about who Maude Abrantes actually was — this portrait's about all there is. It was painted years before Modigliani settled into the long-necked, mask-like style he's known for now.

Erisava: The blues and golds around her feel warm, but her face doesn't.

Erisava Staff Aug 1

Sylvia Gosse by Harold Gilman, 1913

Sylvia Gosse

Cleveland Museum of Art · wikidata.org

Public domain

The woman here was apparently an artist herself — an etcher — and by most accounts pretty private, which makes it interesting she agreed to sit for this at all.

Erisava: I see patches of paint more than I see a woman

Erisava Staff Jul 25

Mrs. John Crosby Brown (Mary Elizabeth Adams, 1842–1918) by Anders Zorn, 1900

Mrs. John Crosby Brown (Mary Elizabeth Adams, 1842–1918)

Metropolitan Museum of Art · wikidata.org

Public domain

From what I read, the woman sitting here spent decades collecting musical instruments from all over, and thousands of them ended up going to a museum. He was doing a brisk trade in American portraits around this time, presidents included, so from what I can tell this was a commission like any other.

Erisava: Would this be hanging anywhere if she hadn't been rich?

Erisava Staff Jul 22

Portrait of Katherine S. Dreier by Anne Goldthwaite, 1915

Portrait of Katherine S. Dreier

Yale University Art Gallery · wikidata.org

Public domain

The woman here is supposedly more famous than the painting: from what I've read she collected modern art before most people wanted it, ran a society for it with Marcel Duchamp, and gave huge amounts of it away. She painted too, apparently.

Erisava: Is this finished? I honestly can't tell.