The Triumph of Female Artists in the Art Market

In the last ten years, the artworks from female old masters have shown a persistent demand from worldwide collectors and their prices have increased substantially.
Although women artists were very successful in their own time, they have languished in obscurity for a long time: they were not only understudied by scholars but also considered stylistically inferior to their male peers.
But nowadays art historians and museum curators recognise their fundamental contribution to art history. There is in fact an increasing numbers of museum acquisitions and exhibitions turning the spotlight on the historical women artists who succeeded in their professional careers: the Museo Nacional del Prado is showcasing the work of Sofonisba Anguissola, a court painter for King Phillip II of Spain, and Lavinia Fontana, who is considered the first professional female artist. Many other female painters have also been the subjects of major exhibitions in recent years, for instance, Artemisia Gentileschi at Palazzo Braschi in Rome from 30 November 2016 to 7 May 2017, and Michaelina Wautier at MAS Museum aan de Stroom in Antwerp from 1 June 2018 to 2 September 2018.
In order to this success, it can be stated that the female Old Masters have been enjoying a renaissance of their own, and this is also reflected in the art market trends. Paintings by women artists have reached very high estimates in recent years and collectors are fascinated by their quality, uniqueness and rarity.

Lot-Art has selected the most representative works created by leading female artists that have set new auction records:

Artemisia Gentileschi (Rome 1593 - Naples 1652)

Artemisia Gentileschi was a talented and revolutionary painter who, more than 400 years ago, managed to make her way in a predominantly male environment. With her strong personality, strength, and perseverance, Artemisia enchanted courts all around the globe, becoming one of the most sought after artists in Italy and Europe. After her death, like many of the talented women of her time, Artemisia fell into oblivion, only to be rediscovered in more recent times and thereafter become one of the most appraised artists in the world.
Thanks to her father Orazio Gentileschi Artemisia was introduced to the artistic tradition of Tuscany and developed her skills in portraying close-to-life dresses. Her production was significantly shaped by the art of Caravaggio, a colleague of her father, but mediated by Orazio’s response to the Lombard painter’s language.
Interesting Auction Results:

Left: Lucretia; oil on canvas, h: 96.50 w: 75 cm; Right: Lucretia; oil on canvas, 133 x 106 cm, framed

Lucretia
oil on canvas, h: 96.50 w: 75 cm
This newly discovered artwork by Artemisia for sale at Arcurial in Paris has set a new record for this artist. Exceeding the base estimate of between €600,000 and €800,000, it was sold on Wednesday 13 November for € 4,777,000.
The painting represents the dramatic moment of the suicide of Lucretia, the virtuous wife of the nobleman Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus. After her rape by Sextus Tarquinius, she called on her father and her husband for vengeance and then stabbed herself to death.
In a sign of Gentileschi’s growing prominence, the National Gallery in London will next year stage the first major exhibition of her work in Britain, bringing together 35 works from around the world.

Lucretia
oil on canvas, 133 x 106 cm, framed
Representing the same subject of the previous painting, this lot, for sale at Dorothem, was sold for € 1,885,000. No one more than Artemisia could represent such a dramatic scene since she experienced the rape by the artist Agostino Tassi.

Elisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun (Paris 1755-1842)

The French painter Elisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun, one of the most successful female artists, was particularly noted for her portraits of women.
Born in 1755 in Paris, Elisabeth was the daughter of Louis, a portraitist, and Jeanne Vigée. She succeeded in gaining entrance to the Académie de Saint-Luc at the age of just nineteen, a remarkable accomplishment for a woman at the time.
Vigée Le Brun was interested in fashion, and she painted clothing with great detail and brilliant technique. She showed off her sitters’ wealth and elegance by depicting their luxurious garments and expensive accessories.
In 1778 she was summoned to Versailles, the palace of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette, and became the queen’s favorite painter.
Interesting Auction Results:

Left: Portrait of Muhammad Dervish Khan, Full-Length, Holding his Sword in a Landscape; Right: Portrait of the artist, bust-length

Portrait of Muhammad Dervish Khan, Full-Length, Holding his Sword in a Landscape
The lifesize Portrait of Muhammad Dervish Khan, 1788, achieved the highest price for a work by a female pre-modern era artist, selling for $ 7,185,900 with fees, far exceeding the estimated range between $ 4,000,000 and $6,000,000.
Le Brun showed the work in the salon of 1789 in Paris and it ended up in the collection of her husband, Jean-Baptiste Pierre Le Brun.

Portrait of the artist, bust-length
This interesting portrait of Elisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun, presented with a price estimate of $600,000 - 800,000 at Christie’s Old Master sale in New York, was hammered for $1,512,500.

Elisabetta Sirani (Bologna 1638 – 1665)

The female Bolognese painter Elisabetta Sirani was one of the first successful female artists in an era that denied academy training to women. She studied classic models from antiquity from her home town as well as Florence and Rome. She was the daughter of painter and art teacher Giovanni Andrea Sirani, a follower of renowned Bolognese religious etcher-painter Guido Reni.
Interesting Auction Results:

Left: The Finding of Moses; Right: Venus and Cupid

The Finding of Moses
Elisabetta Sirani tended to focus on bold, outstanding female subjects, as it emerges from this work representing the finding of Moses. When Pharoah ordered the killing of all boys born to the Israelites, Moses was hidden by his mother in a basket of bulrushes on the river Nile. There he was discovered and adopted by Pharoah's daughter. Particularly noteworthy is the naturalistic treatment of the head and face of the female attendant holding the infant and the gracefulness and beauty of the figure of the Pharoah's daughter.
This beautiful painting was sold at Dorotheum on 30 April 2019 for € 186,300.

Venus and Cupid
This dynamic and colorful composition of Venus and Cupid is a splendid example of the artist's later work. The bright colours of the palette, ranging from light pinks and reds to deep greens are typical of the artist's late work. It was sold on 2 February 2018 at Sotheby’s New York for $ 137,500.

Sofonisba Anguissola (Cremona ca. 1532 – Palermo 1625)

Sofonisba Anguissola was a celebrated portraitist in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, born in Cremona to a relatively poor noble family. She traveled to Rome where she was introduced to Michelangelo, who immediately recognized her talent.
She later became an official court painter to the king Philip II, and adapted her style to the more formal requirements of official portraits for the Spanish court. Her work, like that of many early female painters, was often attributed to male painters of the period.
Interesting Auction Results:

Left: Portrait of a Goldsmith; Right: Self Portrait

Portrait of a Goldsmith
This painting reflects Sofonisba’s ability to portray different types of sitters. It was sold on 24 April at Palais Dorotheum for € 93,750, starting with an estimate of € 40,000 - 60,000.

Self Portrait
Presented with a price estimate of $8,000 - 12,000, this self portrait attributed to Sofonisba Anguissola was hammered for $116,500. It shows herself at the easel, presenting herself as the artist and separating herself from the role of the object to be painted.

Fede Galizia (Milan 1578 – 1630)

Fede Galizia was an Italian painter particularly known for her portraits and still lifes. The style of her paintings derived from the naturalistic traditions of the Renaissance in Italy with a sharply realistic approach.
At a young age, Galizia was already an established portrait painter handling many commissioned works. Perhaps it was her father's influence as a miniaturist that led to Galizia's attention to detail in her portraits.
Interesting Auction Results:

Left: A Glass Compote with Peaches, Jasmine Flowers, Quinces, and a Grasshopper; Right: A Still Life of a Porcelain Bowl of Grapes on a Stone Ledge with a Medlar, Quinces, a Pomegranate and a Wasp; A Still Life of a Porcelain Basket of Plums and Grapes on a Stone Ledge with Pears

A Glass Compote with Peaches, Jasmine Flowers, Quinces, and a Grasshopper
This painting is a prime example of the pioneering female artist’s attention to detail and innovation in a compositional arrangement. Galizia’s precise observation of natural details brings flora and fauna to life: she used modulations of light and shadow to convey the curve of the leaves on the apples and the ripeness of the peaches. The canvas was sold at the Sotheby’s Master Paintings Evening Sale in New York on 30 January 2019 for $ 2,415,000.

A Still Life of a Porcelain Bowl of Grapes on a Stone Ledge with a Medlar, Quinces, a Pomegranate and a Wasp; A Still Life of a Porcelain Basket of Plums and Grapes on a Stone Ledge with Pears
This pair of still life paintings in a Northern European style was hammered for $ 2,055,000. Around 20 still life paintings by Galizia are known today, making her fruit and flower pieces rare and highly-priced.

Lavinia Fontana (Bologna 1552 - Rome 1614)

Lavinia Fontana was an Italian painter of the Mannerist school, particularly known for her portraits. She worked around the same time in Rome and Bologna, disregarding the limits of genres imposed on her sex, even painting from the nude, a practice from which women were generally excluded at the time.
She became a portraitist at the court of Pope Paul V and was the recipient of numerous honors, including a bronze portrait medallion cast in 1611 by sculptor and architect Felice Antonio Casoni.
Interesting Auction Results:

Left: Christ and the Samaritan woman at the well; Right: Portrait of Costanza Sforza of Santa Fiora

Christ and the Samaritan woman at the well
Lavinia Fontana was commissioned to make not only portraits, the typical subject matter for women painters, but also religious themes, like this painting representing Christ and the Samaritan woman at the well, sold for € 69,050 at Dorotheum on 22 October 2019.

Portrait of Costanza Sforza of Santa Fiora
Starting from a price estimate of € 64.000 - 86.000, the present portrait was sold for €144,450 at Uppsala Auktionskammare. Fontana made great strides in the field of portraiture, which garnered her fame within and beyond Italy.

Angelika Kauffmann (Coira 1741 – Rome 1807)

Angelika Kauffmann was a Swiss painter of international training and reputation, best known for her Neoclassical paintings. During her own lifetime, she was a personal friend of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Sir Joshua Reynolds. In particular to Goethe, Angelica Kauffmann was "the inestimable lady", and once she settled in Rome in 1781, the poet became soon his favoured companion, accompanying her to museums, sitting for his portrait, reading his poems and plays to her.
Undoubtedly were the Kauffmann's portraits that opened avenues to an international aristocratic and intellectual social world. After studying at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze in 1762 and extensive travels throughout Italy in her youth, Kauffmann moved to London. During her stay in England from 1766 to 1781 she charmed London society and became a leading painter whose portraits and historical canvases commanded large sums of money.
Although she was a foreigner and a woman, Angelika Kauffmann was a founding member and first female member of the Royal Academy of Arts. At that time, the young artist was a leading figure of England's historical paintings.
Interesting Auction Results:

Left: Immortalia, the nymph of immortality, receiving nameplates from two swans; and Silvia, decorating herself with flowers while observed by Daphne; Right: Portrait of three children, almost certainly Lady Georgiana Spenser, later Duchess of Devonshire, Lady Henrietta Spencer and George Viscount Althorp

Immortalia, the nymph of immortality, receiving nameplates from two swans; and Silvia, decorating herself with flowers while observed by Daphne
In the present oval paintings, Angelica Kauffmann depicted two episodes taken from two Italian poems of the sixteenth century: Ariosto’s epic poem Orlando Furioso and the pastoral drama Aminta, by Torquato Tasso. With a price estimate of € 50,000 - 70,000 they have reached a much higher hammer price of € 137,500 at the Dorotheum’s old master painting sale on 22 October 2019.

Portrait of three children, almost certainly Lady Georgiana Spenser, later Duchess of Devonshire, Lady Henrietta Spencer and George Viscount Althorp
This portrait was painted in England after the artist’s arrival from Rome in 1766. It shows her characteristic lightness of touch, entirely in tune with the fashionable neoclassical style promoted in London. On 30 January 2019 It was sold for $ 915,000 at the Sotheby’s Master Paintings Evening Sale in New York.

Michaelina Wautier (Mons 1617 – Bruxelles 1689)

Michaelina Wautier was a Flemish artist whose artworks have only recently begun to receive the attention it rightly deserves. She was born in Mons and she spent her career in Bruxelles.
Michaelina is a very unusual case in that she painted works in almost all the subject types, including history paintings, portraits, still-lifes and genre painting, when at the time most Flemish female artists specialised in flower compositions.
Interesting Auction Results:

Left: A young man smoking a pipe; Right: A Garland of Flowers, Suspended Between Two Animal Skulls, A Dragonfly Above

A young man smoking a pipe
The present painting showcases Wautier’s remarkable talent for capturing the personality of her sitters. Though not a portrait, this smoking young boy portrayed in a three-quarter profile was no doubt painted from a live model. It was sold for $ 759,000 on 1 May 2019 at Christie’s, New York.

A Garland of Flowers, Suspended Between Two Animal Skulls, A Dragonfly Above
The present painting is one of only two still lifes known by her hand. Starting from a price estimate of $150,000 — 200,000, it was hammered for $ 471,000.

Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau (Exeter 1837 – Paris 1922)

Born in New Hampshire, Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau was one of the most accomplished Salon artists of her time. She was an American expatriate who died in Paris where she had lived most of her life. She exhibited a total of thirty six paintings between 1868-1914, more than any other foreign or American female artist. In 1887, she had the distinction of becoming the first and only American woman to receive a Salon gold medal.
Interesting Auctin Results:

Left: Les Trois Amis; Right: La Captive

Les Trois Amis
The present work was sold at Sotheby’s in New York for $250,000 on 1 February 2019. It was finished in 1893 when the artist was at the height of her professional and artistic accomplishments.
Gardner’s well-balanced academic training is evident in the subject’s placement at the center of the composition, backed on one side by a shadowy forest and on the other by an open path to the horizon.

La Captive
Starting from an estimate of $ 250,000 - 350,000, this lot was sold for $ 591,000. The subdued, tasteful color palettes and the careful treatment of the figures, faces, hands, feet, and drapery are the principal qualities of this painting.

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