Portrait of a Lady: women, painting, and philanthropy at Dulwich Picture Gallery
To celebrate International Women’s Day 2023, Assistant Curator Lucy West will examine the historic role of women in the formation and reception of Dulwich Picture Gallery’s collection.
Since it opened to the public in 1817, the gallery has become a meeting place for many artistic women – whose presence in the gallery’s history can often be overlooked. Ranging from the gallery’s foundation to the eve of the second World War and right through to the present day, Lucy’s lecture will explore a whole host of historic and contemporary personalities: from the female art historians and artists, who visited the gallery in the nineteenth century to closely observe examples of historic paintings, to the vibrant female philanthropists who bequeathed important works to the collection.
Image: Helen Margaret Spanton, Portrait of a Lady, c.1900-1910, oil on canvas, 117 x 66 cm, DPG642. Dulwich Picture Gallery, London.