Skip to content
Black and white engraving of Queen Elizabeth wearing a large, ornate dress holding a scepter on her right shoulder

Queen Elizabeth of England, France, Ireland and Virginia, Crispin de Passe, the elder, 17th Century, engraving, Bequest of Herbert Greer French, 1943.242

Peter Paul Rubens' Saint Catherine of Alexandria in the Clouds, a black and white etching of Saint Catherine staring down at the viewer, wearing a loose flowing gown, holding a sword downward in her left hand. Radiant beams of light emit from her head

Saint Catherine of Alexandria in the Clouds, Peter Paul Rubens, circa 1630, etching and engraving on antique laid paper – 3rd state, Bequest of Herbert Greer French, 1943.346

Honore Daumier's The Amazon Women (Les Amazones), a satirical drawing of a thin woman hearing a helmet riding a horse past an overweight woman who stands next to a tree with a sword hung on a branch. A spear and shield lay on the ground next to her feet.

The Amazon Women (Les Amazones), Honore Daumier, 19th Century, Paris/France, hand-colored lithograph, 9 ½ x 8 in. (24.1 x 20.3 cm), Source unknown, x1946.84

Previous Next

Strong Women: Queens, Goddesses and Amazons

August 6–December 15, 2019 | Gallery 213 | Free

 

Beginning around 1400 prints became a powerful conduit for visual imagery. Its capacity for replication and circulation was unique, making it a powerful means for gendered images and for perceptions of gender issues. This selection drawn from the permanent collection is about woman and some of the guises good and bad in which she was represented by male artists’ vision of their power through the early nineteenth century. She is the Virgin, and she is Eve. Between the extremes there is a wide range of women’s conduct ranging with regards to sexual nature and behavior. Women are shown as saint, virgin, temptress, lover and heroine.