Daisy Makeig-Jones, whose work is on view at NMWA through August 16 in Casting a Spell, created Fairyland Lusterware for the Wedgwood pottery company in the early 20th century. These...
![Detail image of a ceramic punchbowl painted with blue, green, red, and purple tones. The details of a mythological scene are painted in gold on top of the swaths of color.](https://nmwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2019.22_detail_44182-aspect-ratio-2.25-1-700x330.jpg)
Petah Coyne and Polly Morgan are influenced by the art of Louise Bourgeois and Eva Hesse. Both artists bring forth otherworldly creations through extremely labor and time intensive processes. The...
![Myriad layers of melted pink and white wax encrust and obscure the metal armature for this abstract sculpture, which hangs from satin-wrapped chains. Its color and shape, as well as the bumpy, lacy texture, evoke a frilly tutu, lavishly frosted wedding cake, or coral accretions.](https://nmwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/2013.10-aspect-ratio-2.25-1-700x330.jpg)
Painting with Confidence: Early Female Self-Portraiture
Posted: July 15, 2015
Category: From The Collection
Self-portraits convey more than just appearances—they affirm an artist’s identity. In the 16th and 17th centuries, women artists made portraits of themselves in their studios. Self-portraiture helped legitimize women as...
![Painting of a trio of smiling musicians. On the left, a man wears a large black hat and plays the violin. On the right sits a man in orange wearing a feathered hat and playing the mandolin. In the center sits a woman dressed in black, opening her mouth in song.](https://nmwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2001.146-GAP_506-aspect-ratio-2.25-1-700x330.jpg)
Impress your friends with five fast facts about Elisabetta Gut, whose work is currently on view in NMWA’s galleries.
![A brown, tropical fruit with a large segment of skin removed to reveal small, round pages of sheet music inside instead of fruit flesh. The book rests on a square woodblock with “libra—seme” printed in the bottom-right corner.](https://nmwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/2004.33_v2-aspect-ratio-2.25-1-700x330.jpg)
“What is natural?” is the intriguing question surrounding Super Natural. Two of the exhibition’s artists, Rachel Ruysch and Sam Taylor-Johnson, answer this query through their respective works of art.
![A still life painting featuring an asymmetrical arrangement of flowers; the central section features pink, orange, yellow, and blue flowers and is dramatically highlighted compared to the background and outer edge of arrangement.](https://nmwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/1986.282-GAP-aspect-ratio-2.25x1.png)
During the press preview for Super Natural, NMWA Chief Curator Kathryn Wat stressed one fact above all others about featured artist Maria Sibylla Merian: this woman was radical. Not only...
![A detailed engraving portrays a large, black and tan lizard with a white belly in precise detail. Facing right and positioned over a green surface and a hatching egg, the reptile bites a long, red and black snake attacking another egg and curling around the lizard's tail.](https://nmwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/1986.219.69-aspect-ratio-2.25-1-700x330.jpg)
What is natural? Porcelain grass lawns and anthropomorphic scooters may not be the first objects to come to mind, although they are likely to make a lasting impression. Visitors can...
![Detail photograph of ceramic sculpture made to look like a patch of lawn. Individual squares consisting of multiple upright blades of porcelain grass, glazed green, fit together to form a lush rectangular field of grass.](https://nmwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/DHolder_Monoculture01_8x12-aspect-ratio-2.25-1-700x330.jpg)
Despite everything we learned in school about sticks and stones, language has an immense impact on the world. Words transform perceptions, and once words are spoken they can continue to...
![A silhouette of a woman painting and several words in red and black. The words include "Defensive" and "Jitters", repeatedly painted onto the surface.](https://nmwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2004.23_627-aspect-ratio-2.25-1-700x330.jpg)
Impress your friends with five fast facts about Andrea Higgins, whose work is currently on view at NMWA in the collection galleries.
![Close-up detail of a larger abstract artwork features thick black paint meticulously applied in small neat rectangles alternating orientation to form a grid. There is a minuscule amount of space between the tiles that allows a pink background to show through.](https://nmwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/DSC02178-aspect-ratio-2.25-1-700x330.jpg)
Nearly 300 years apart, Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi (1593–1656) and French artist Suzanne Valadon (1865–1938) both used their perspectives as women to capture the power and complexity of the female...
![Against a dark black and brown background, a light skinned woman in a red dress with wavy reddish-brown hair wears a white cloth and gold crown around her head. Her right hand clutches a palm while her left grazes a spiked breaking wheel. She stares straight at the viewer.](https://nmwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Artemisia-Self-Portrait-as-Saint-Catherine-of-Alexandria-aspect-ratio-2.25-1-700x330.jpg)