Paris Spies-Gans and Martina Droth will discuss Spies-Gans' important first book, A Revolution on Canvas: The Rise of Women Artists in Britain and France, 1760-1830.

Just as the National Museum of Women in the Arts founder Wilhelmina Cole Holladay sought to challenge the assumption that there have been "no great women artists" by collecting and publically exhibiting many indisputably "great" works of artist women, so too has Paris Spies-Gans investigated the same assumption, through evidence-based analysis. Her body of work includes site and time-specific research that reveals how women have found ways to achieve critical and commercial success despite the obstacles they have faced.

Both women - Wilhelmina, the collector, and Paris, the scholar- intend their work not as end-points but as part of ongoing discussion and learning.

Tracing the activity of more than 1,300 women who exhibited more than 7,000 works of art across genres in London’s and Paris’s premier exhibition venues throughout the Revolutionary era, the book demonstrates that women artists professionalized in significant numbers a century earlier than scholars have previously thought.

Paris Spies-Gans' scholarship and resultant discoveries complement the mission of the National Museum of Women in the Arts and its committees, three of which are presenting this event; Martina Droth, as interlocutor, will use her expertise to contextualize the material in A Revolution on Canvas: The Rise of Women Artists in Britain and France, 1760-1830. We hope you can join us for what promises to be a fascinating discussion.