Women love Flowers

Addendum: I am adding some more flowers by women artists below, at the end of this blog, because they are so skillfully rendered and lovely in every way--form, shape, color, perspective, composition, distinctiveness.

Anna Blackburne, British
naturalist artist, 1726-1793 

Francoise de Felice, Italian-French, born in Paris in 1952. She studied art at the Sorbonne. At 20 she moved to Sicily, where the Sicilian Baroque style inspired her work. Women and flowers, forever in bloom.

What delights us most, even during this time of COVID? What brings unmitigated joy? What makes us smile? 

Flowers. Yes, all kinds of flowers. Women love flowers. We see in flowers, in every single flower actually, a whole world of energy and beauty.  It's like returning to the  Garden of Eden and traveling from there on a flowery path to our very own gardens.  

The flowers painted by women skilled in the art of still life are like a perpetual garden in every season. They are forever young, forever blooming, in every age, across time and space.  Old age does not diminish them. Old age becomes them. 

And they are as diverse and unique as the artists who created them and bring them to still life and our lives. Their flowers bloom not only in Spring but year-round, in profusion, for eternity.  That's why these women artists who painted in the shadows of better known male artists are becoming well known themselves, and increasingly popular, from grand auction houses and myriad galleries, to internet sites such as Pinterest, Etsy and Artnet.  Whether its an original or a print, we can surround ourselves with the exquisite talent of women artists from any historic period. 

Here are a few of the thousands of flowers in the aesthetic gardens of women artists from around the world and mostly in chronological order of the historical period in which they worked.  

Anna Blackburne, British, 1726-1793, was a British naturalist, an interest she inherited from her father, a natural historian and collector. She learned Latin in order to improve her knowledge, and started her own collection as well. The power of curious woman who lived in every era of human history! She was in contact with famous naturalist like Linnaeus and Johan Foster, both of whom named several species in her honor. Who knew! Also her brother, who lived in the US, sent her many specimens, especially of birds, which she also painted. Although her art was rather ingloriously dispersed and sold off to god knows where, it's wonderful that Sothebys has rounded up a wonderful collection that it sells at auction. So glad to know this.

Jessica Hayllar, c.1858-1940, was born in London, the youngest of 9 children. The 5 sisters in this large family were given art lessons by their father, James, a well-known painter at the time. Jessica became the most prolific artist among the Hayllar offspring, although her sister Edith also achieved some recognition. Jessica exhibited at the Royal Academy in London regularly between 1879 and 1915 and also had works shown at the Society of British Artists and other venues. She painted domestic scenes, local villagers, and family gatherings. The family lived at Castle Priory, Wallingford, on the banks of the Thames, and many of her works depict the happy, settled life they enjoyed there. In her later years she mostly concentrated on painting flowers, as shown here, in a kind of Pre-Raphaelite realism she apparently inherited from her father. Her works sell very well through Christie's, whose collection includes art from Jessica's other sisters, always nice to learn.

Jane Peterson, American, 1876-1965, was born in Elgin, Illinois, and was a graduate of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.  She is known for her richly painted sill lifes and beach scenes along the Massachusset's coast. 

Fishing Boats, Gloucester, MA,
at the Brooklyn Museum.

She travelled widely and studied as she did so, including under some well-known European artists. She also taught art in the US and abroad. Around 1912 she became associated with a group of American artists that included John Singer Sargent, Childe Hassam, and Maurice Prendergast.  Her works are held at the Metropolitan in NY. the National Museum of Women in the Arts and the Hirschorn in Washington, DC. I'll have to look for them next time I'm in those cities. I love this bright bouquet of zinnias, which may well have been influenced by her work and travels with the Spanish  artist Joaquin Sorolla (another new name for me). 

Laura Wheeler Waring, 1887-1948, African-American, was born in Hartford, Connecticut, became a painter and educator. She went to the highly regarded Pennsylvania School of the Arts, travelled and painted in France, and returned to the States to teach and continue her art.  This young girl is surrounded by flowers, lifting her up with hope at a time when White Supremacy raged in America. 

Dod Procter, born Doris Margaret Shaw, a British artist, 1890-1972, attended art schools in England and in Paris along with her husband Ernest, where they were both influenced by Impressionism and Post-impressionism. Her husband joined a French Ambulance Unit during World War I, a powerful impact on their lives and work. Dod Procter was an active artist after the untimely death of her husband in 1935. That's when she also travelled to the United States, Canada, Jamaica and Africa. She died in 1972. Her work was exhibited at the Royal Academy on many occasions, considered a triumph for women artists. She painted more portraits then still lifes, but I like this painting. Also this turn of the century period was one of the most prolific for women artists around the world. 

Amy Katherine Browning 1881-1978, was born in Bedfordshire, UK. She entered the Royal College of Art in 1899, and spent several years off and on studying and teaching there until 1906. I was delighted to learn that she was a friend of the  English suffragist Sylvia Pankhurst and that they worked together on an art exhibition for the Women's Social and Political Union in 1909. This was a time when American Suffragists were learning from their active English counterparts and began holding parades and public protests for suffrage. Browning continued to paint after painful years of World War I, supporting herself by teaching. She exhibited at the Paris Salon and won several awards for her work.  She also took commissions, including one for a portrait of Winston Churchill.  She died in 1978, her legacy preserved in several museums and galleries in the UK.  I like these flowers, kind of askew, thrown in a vase without much ado, but endearing. 

Bibi Zogbe, Lebanese, 1885-1973, Thistles. 

Bibi Zogbe, Cherry Trees in Flower

Bibi Zogbe was born in the Lebanese seaside village of Sahel Alma. She emigrated to Argentina at the age of sixteen. Her professional artistic career began in the 1930's with a number of exhibitions in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro, in Chile and Uruguay, in Paris and elsewhere. At the end of the Second World War, she lived in Paris and Dakar and from there she went to Lebanon in 1947, a long-awaited dream. She had a one-woman exhibition which soon gained her fame. Her flower paintings are one of a kind, exquisite, special. Some call them a "microcosm of Lebanon, «Paradise of Eden» a garden endlessly in blossom, symbol of the birth of  life. The profusion of flowers in her work evokes an eternal spring, delicate and colorful. Art historian Charles Corms said of Bibi: “All the flowers of the world smile on us a day and then are gone, but her flowers will never perish away for she has put into them the clear immortal fire of her heart."  I have fallen in love with Bibi Zogbe. Maybe I should buy one of her works? 

Faith Ringgold, born in Harlem in 1936, Surrounded by Flowers. 

Sunflower Quilting Group

Faith Ringgold was one of the most talented artist of  the Harlem Renaissance, a painter, quilter, mixed media sculptor, performance artist, writer, teacher. She went to the City College of New York (CCNY), travelled in Europe in the 1960s, a time of  raging Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam war protests, creating her first political paintings there.  Returning to the States, she moved toward sculptor and mixed media, establishing her voice and her legacy in the 1970s and 80s until today. She wrote several books, including art books for children, and an autobiography, "We Flew Over the Bridge" (1995). She is professor emeritus at the U of California, San Diego, where she taught from 1987-2002. She now lives and works in Englewood, NJ.  An extraordinary talent, and a favorite of art collectors.

Gwendolyn Knight, Barbados-American,  1913-2005. She moved to the US as a foster child and rose against the odds to become a bright light among the artists and writers of the Harlem Renaissance. She was, I only now discovered, the wife of the famed artist Jacob Lawrence, whose Migration series remains a monumental work of art. I remember seeing the exhibit at the Phillips Collection in DC. Knight was able to find her own voice and to begin painting in mid-life into her later years. "When your spouse is Jacob Lawrence," wrote journalist Herb Boyd in an article in the Amsterdam, NewYork News in 2019, "getting out of his impressive shadow can be daunting. But Gwendolyn managed to step from his glow and shine her own artistic light and legacy, while retaining her birth surname." 

Georgia O'Keefe, Purple Petunias, 1924. These bold petunias accidently (by some click) got wedded to Beneke-Molenaar's roses, below, so here it is. 

Yvette Beneke-Molenaar, contemporary, lives and paints in Cape Town, South Africa, Roses in a Vase. Her prints are popular on Pinterest, Etsy,Artnet, etc. And they are pretty, and some intriquing.
https://www.facebook.com/yvetteart/

Georgia O'Keeffe, (1887-1986), Red Canna, 1915. I thought her purple petunias were here, but we got this lovely watercolor.  Always O'Keeffe.

Fiona Craig, Australian, contemporary, grew up in the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney, and currently resides in the US. She attended art groups and schools, both academic and non-academic, which gave her a broad arts and crafts experience. Her works are in private, corporate, institutional and public collections in Australia, the US and other countries. She specializes in floral, landscape and portrait painting in oils, pastels and watercolors. "I am constantly inspired by the contrasts between Australian flora and landscapes and those of North America. I like to compose dramatic displays that bring the art audience closer to appreciating nature."   Aren't these the most gorgeous Iris!

Charlotte Sabbagh, Danish, lives in US, contemporary, Spring
Danish artist Charlotte Sabbagh currently lives in Rowayton, CT. She studied in New York at Parsons Fine Arts program, NYC Studio School and Silvermine, CT. She gets her inspiration from her native country, where she spends each summer. She is drawn to the contrast of light and dark in the water, sky horizons, atmosphere and the natural beauty of the world we live in. These images are expressed in the colors, textures and mixed media used in each painting. Her catalog of work consists of abstract paintings using oils, acrylics and mixed media and she shows widely. “Art is public by nature, yet a complex echo of the inner self” — Charlotte Sabbagh

Some sources, for more information and images:

https://www.google.com/search?q=anna+blackburne+artist+sotheby%27s%27&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwiyyb6865 
 Click on this link for a whole series from its Sotheby's Blackburne collection that it sells at auction.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Blackburne 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Hayllar 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Peterson 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dod_Procter 

https://www.invaluable.com/artist/zogbe-bibi-i9wq5ns4xe/sold-at-auction-prices/ Bibi Zogbe, 1890 -1973.  Click on this link to see some of Zogbe's lovely art at BP Parity auction house. I love seeing women artists selling at places like Christie's, some priced out of most of our ranges, but a few less dear. Her work is fabulous,distinctive, in museums and lots of private collections.  So glad I discovered her. 

https://www.onefineart.com/artists/painters/Bibi-Zogbe, good bio information.  

https://www.facebook.com/yvetteart/

https://www.fionacraig.com/contemporary Australian artists 

On right: Gwendolyn Knight painted more traditional works for friends, such as this bouquet of flowers. Lovely and dreamy. I have the feeling, reading about this wonderful woman, that if I had asked her for a painting, she would have done one, and I would have treasured it. 
On left, Suzanne Valadon got wedded to Knight, and can't fix it! See Addendum below.

https://www.gearygallery.com/?artists=charlotte-sabbagh, contemporary, Danish, lives in Connecticut.

http://brillyance.blogspot.com/2017/10/laura-wheeler-waring-1887-1948.html

https://www.faithringgold.com/

http://amsterdamnews.com/news/2019/nov/27/gwendolyn-knight-she-cast-her-own-artistic-light/ on Gwendolyn Knight.

Addendum: I am adding some more flowers by women artists from time to time, as they are posted on Female Artists in History and Celebration of Female Artists, because they are so skilled and lovely in every way--form, shape, color, perspective, distinctiveness. And we need to know about these great artists. Many are now collectibles, and popular, but I think more Museums should be adding them to their permanent collections and on their gallery walls. 

Suzanne Valadon, French, 1865-1938, Flowers in Vase.. A great period for women artists.

Grace Hartigan by Gordan Parks, which is why I love this! 

Grace Hartigan, American, 1922-2008,Abstract/Expressionist painter, Flowers in Red Vase.
She is fantastic. WOW. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hartigan. Well known, highly collectible, popular on Pinterest and lie sites, her paintings are held by numerous major art institutions. Friend of Pollack and all the famed men who painted in NYC in the1940s and 1950s. She held her own. 

Mary Cassett, Lilacs in a Window, 1880 
I can smell these lush purple lilacs.  Viva Mary Cassett!

Sarah Blumenschein, Engineer and Artist, American, lives in Albuquerque, NM, contemporary, pastels and still lifes.

https://www.sarahblumenschein.com/gallery.htm

“I find myself primarily drawn to painting 'still life' because of the variety of colors, shapes, textures, and reflective surfaces possible. One of my favorite subjects is glass because of the way it both transmits and reflects the light. With each painting, I enjoy the challenge of capturing a strong sense of light and creating the illusion of 3-dimensions on a 2-dimensional surface.”