For centuries, women have been depicted in artworks of various mediums, often to represent saints, allegories, or objects of sexual desire. While many artists have been able to depict the complexity of womanhood, none so do as clearly as women artists. Through self-representation and worldly experience, women artists capture the many qualities and characteristics of a woman through their art. The David Owsley Museum of Art has many works of women by women, including paintings, sculptures, and drawings. The works in this portfolio highlight the qualities of women from a woman’s perspective.

Nurturing & Tender

Sketch for Margot Embracing Her Mother (No.1) by Mary Cassatt: L2023.002.000
A large part of womanhood for many individuals is motherhood, which artist Mary Cassatt is known for capturing in her art. Her impressionistic sketch shows a young girl looking out towards the viewer as she presses against her mother. The calm, tired gaze of the mother as she holds her daughter represents the tender relationship between mother and child. Cassatt’s sketch was a study for a painting in the Museum of Fine Art in Boston titled Caresse Maternelle. The finished painting further highlights the nurturing and tender nature of motherhood.

A Study by Bessie Potter Vonnoh: 1989.032.010
While Cassatt was known for her painterly depictions of motherhood, Bessie Potter Vonnoh was often defined by her sculptural representations of motherhood. A Study is a small sculpture that portrays a woman breastfeeding her baby. The sculpture gives viewers a glimpse into the intimate nature of nurturing a child.

Expressive & Dynamic

Joy of the Waters by Harriet Whitney Frishmuth: 1995.035.159
Crest of the Wave by Harriet Whitney Frishmuth: 1995.035.160
The Vine by Harriet Whitney Frishmuth: 2020.004.000
Harriet Whitney Frishmuth used ballet dancers as inspiration for sculptures of dynamic women. Joys of the Waters and Crest of the Wave are large-scale sculptures featuring dancing women. Frishmuth moved to Paris to study art and learn from Auguste Rodin, who taught her the important movement in art. Her best-known works were heavily influenced by dance, demonstrating her application of what she learned in Paris. Many of her sculptures celebrate the female form through expressive and enthusiastic poses. The Vine is a small-scale sculpture of a woman on her toes with her head tipped back. The exaggerated pose is emphasized by the contours of her arm and back. She added grape vines to the piece because of vineyards she had seen along the Hudson River.

Russian Dancers by Malvina Hoffman: 1990.026.004
Similar to Frishmuth, Malvina Hoffman used ballet dancers as models for her sculpture. Both the man and woman figures have wide, energetic grins as they reach their arms out to hold each other up as they dance. The ripples of their clothing tight against their bodies suggest quick movement.

Stoic & Strong

Advancing Monuments by Stella Snead: 2001.005.000
Surrealist painter Stella Snead features still female forms balancing on rock formations. These figures were most likely inspired by Taos Pueblo Native Americans, whose women dance in cloaks as a part of their culture. The forms appear as sturdy, strong, and permanent as stone sculptures.

Victory by Janet Scudder: 2021.005.000
The sleek nude woman balances on a marble ball while holding a laurel wreath that symbolizes victory. The sculpture represents women’s contributions to World War I and their work towards suffrage. The woman appears focused and even stoic as she works to stay balanced.

Female Nude (Standing Woman) by Doris Caesar: 2018.021.000
Doris Caesar focused her art on the female body. The figure stands tall and strong to highlight the contrasting angles and curves of the female body. Along with representing the feminine body, the figure expresses the female experience through its emaciated and elongated features.

A Young Woman from Thebes Tending to Her Wounded Father by Antoinette Béfort: 1996.002.000
A young woman with a blank expression holds a cloth to her father’s chest, where he had been wounded during Alexander the Great’s attack on Thebes. She is neither emotional nor panicking, but rather staying strong as she focuses on taking care of her father.

Soft & Charming

Group Portrait of Six Women as an Allegory of Love by Anna Dorothea Lisiewska: 2019.003.000
Anna Dorothea Lisiewska depicts six upper-class French women that share a family resemblance. All of the women wear subtle smiles that give them a charming appearance. Lisiewska’s painting style idealizes the individuals to make their skin appear soft and smooth, even the older woman in the back has soft features.

Portrait of a Young Girl by Marie Victoria Lemoine: 1995.035.153
The young girl is painted in a hazy manner that highlights her soft features such as her rounded, rosy cheeks and slightly messy updo. Her demeanor is charming because of her slight smile and kind eyes.

Works of women by women give a glimpse into the intimate world of womanhood and its complex characteristics. These images show dynamic and strong yet soft and nurturing women capable of anything.

By Halle Pressler, Class of 2025, DOMA Education Intern