Long Essays

• Adelaide Labille-Guiard

• Self-portrait with Two Pupils

• Oil on canvas

• NEOCLASSISM [1780-1815]

Obstacles and Challenges

• Barred from life-drawing instruction at the French Academy.

• Faced intense gender-based criticism for becoming a highly successful portraitist.

• Attacked by the press during the French Revolution because of her association with Marie Antoinette.

• Required royal intervention to be admitted to the Royal Academy—a rare achievement for a woman at the time.

How Her Art Communicates or Advocates

• In her self-portraits, including this work, she emphasizes her professionalism and artistic identity even while depicting maternal tenderness.

• She challenges stereotypes that women could not be both mothers and serious artists; her self-representation is controlled, elegant, and authoritative.

• By painting herself as confident and morally upright, Vigée Le Brun advocates for women’s legitimacy in the artistic sphere at a moment when female public identities were under attack.

• Artemesia Gentileschi

• Judith Slaying Holofernes

• Oil on Canvas

• BAROQUE [1600-1700}

Obstacles and Challenges

• Barred from formal academy training; women were not permitted to study from nude male models, limiting technical instruction.

• Faced patriarchal control of artistic careers—her father was both gatekeeper and necessary patron.

• Endured sexual assault by Agostino Tassi; courtroom testimony damaged her public reputation.

• Persistent dismissal of her achievements as “derivative” of her father or of Caravaggio.

How Her Art Communicates or Advocates

• Judith Slaying Holofernes visually communicates both personal and collective struggle: the intensely physical depiction of Judith and Abra overpowering Holofernes conveys rage, agency, and female strength.

• Through violent realism and psychological intensity, Gentileschi challenges typical Baroque depictions where women appear passive or decorative.

• Her art advocates for women’s autonomy by portraying women as active protagonists and moral agents—turning a biblical story into a broader statement of empowerment.

• Mary Cassatt

• Woman in Black at the Opera

• Oil on Canvas

• Impressionism [1860-1900]

Obstacles & Challenges

• Cassatt was excluded from the École des Beaux-Arts because women were not admitted.

• Restrictions on public mobility meant women could only attend certain social spaces, and doing so alone risked social judgment.

• Impressionist circles were male-dominated; critics often categorized her work as “feminine” and therefore less serious.

How Her Art Communicates or Advocates

• Cassatt’s opera scene highlights the complexities of women’s visibility in public spaces: the woman looks through opera glasses, but men also look at her, commenting on how women were constantly observed and judged.

• By focusing on a middle-class woman actively engaging with culture (rather than being passive decoration), Cassatt challenges male-centered perspectives.

• She uses modern composition—cropping, asymmetry, and vantage points influenced by Japanese prints—to elevate subjects centered on women’s experiences.

• Her work advocates for female agency in the public sphere and critiques the male gaze embedded in social spaces.

• Frida Kahlo

• The Two Fridas

• Oil on Canvas

• SURREALISM [1915-1940]

Obstacles and Challenges

• Constantly dismissed by male contemporaries—often called “Diego Rivera’s wife” rather than recognized as an independent artist.

• Faced gendered expectations that Indigenous, political, or autobiographical themes were inappropriate or overly emotional.

• Navigated chronic health issues in a world that undervalued women’s bodily autonomy and emotional expression.

How Her Art Communicates or Advocates

• Kahlo uses dual self-portraiture to communicate the internal conflict produced by cultural, gender-based, and personal pressures.

• The open hearts, exposed veins, and symbolic clothing articulate experiences—pain, identity, vulnerability—that women were discouraged from expressing.

• Her work advocates for women’s right to self-definition, blending political nationalism, female subjectivity, and personal narrative.

• By placing the female body at the center—not as an object for the male gaze but as a vessel of emotion and agency—Kahlo challenges patriarchal narratives in modern art.

• Timothy O’sullivan

• A harvest of death

• albumen print

• EARLY PHOTOGRAPHY [1848-1860]

Artist’s Goal

• Document the true cost of the American Civil War without romanticization

• Provide visual evidence of battlefield death for public understanding

• Support the idea that photography could truthfully record history

What It Says About Artist / Society / History

• Reflects O’Sullivan’s belief in showing reality over heroism

• Indicates the public’s growing desire for factual, unfiltered war images

• Demonstrates a shift from glorified battle paintings to brutal documentation

• Shows a nation grappling with mass death and industrialized warfare

How the Message Is Communicated

• Unposed bodies in the foreground convey devastation and anonymity

• Repetition of corpses creates a sense of scale and inevitability

• Bleak, barren landscape emphasizes the emptiness and futility of war

• Pablo Picasso

• Guernica

• Oil on Canvas

• SURREALISM [1915-1940]

Artist’s Goal

• Respond to the bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War

• Create a universal anti-war statement against Fascist violence

• Convey the chaos, fragmentation, and psychological trauma of modern warfare

What It Says About Artist / Society / History

• Picasso’s political stance against Franco’s regime and totalitarian brutality

• Reflects the horrors of aerial warfare and attacks on civilians

• Shows the modern world’s fear, instability, and loss of moral grounding

• Demonstrates how art in the 20th century becomes explicitly political and global

How the Message Is Communicated

• Fragmented, shattered forms visually mirror trauma and chaos

• Monochrome palette evokes newspaper photographs, tying art to modern reporting

• Distorted faces and screams show psychological suffering, not heroic sacrifice

• Collapsing spaces create an overwhelming sense of disorientation and violence

• Francisco de Goya

• Third of May

• Oil on Canvas

• ROMANTICISM [1780-1860]

Artist’s Goal

• Memorialize the Spanish civilians executed by Napoleon’s forces

• Condemn political violence and tyranny

• Present the Spanish people as tragic martyrs

What It Says About Artist / Society / History

• Shows Goya’s deep disillusionment with war and human cruelty

• Reflects Spain’s national trauma under French occupation

• Transforms a political event into a universal symbol of oppression

• Highlights Romanticism’s focus on emotion, heroism, and individual suffering

How the Message Is Communicated

• Central figure in white, arms raised, resembles a Christ-like martyr

• Harsh lantern light exposes brutality and moral clarity (victims vs. executioners)

• Firing squad shown as a faceless machine, dehumanizing the oppressors

• Strong contrast and dramatic composition evoke shock and empathy

• Jacques-Louis David

• Oath of the Horatii

• Oil on Canvas

• NEOCLASSISM [1780-1815]

Artist’s Goal

• Promote civic virtue, patriotism, and sacrifice for the state

• Reinforce Enlightenment ideals of moral clarity and duty

• Provide a model of heroic behavior for contemporary French society

What It Says About Artist / Society / History

• Reflects David’s belief in reason, order, and loyalty to the nation

• Commissioned by King Louis XVI, revealing the monarchy’s desire to promote unity

• Foreshadows the French Revolution by celebrating citizen valor over aristocratic privilege

• Illustrates Neoclassicism’s role as a political tool for moral instruction

How the Message Is Communicated

• Rigid, geometric composition reflects order, discipline, and control

• Male figures in strong diagonals show strength and resolve

• Women slumped in the background reveal the personal cost of political duty

• Precise lines, clarity, and seriousness communicate moral purpose and strength