Painting Her Pleasure

While sexuality and the nude were prime subjects for male artists in the early twentieth century, for female artists, revealing sexual desire on canvas was deemed unacceptable. Painting her pleasure examines three remarkable women who defied this convention. Marie Vassilieff (1884-1957), Émilie Charmy (1878-1974), and Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938) probed sexuality in a forthright manner and questioned gender identity in their representations of the human form. They depicted the nude in a sexually dissident way, ushering in new subject matter for female artists - the male nude, the Black body, the pregnant nude and nude self-portrait. Treating these subjects was an act that defied the foundations of the nude practice and the tradition of art itself. As a result of their unorthodox practices, each artist encountered censorship. Attention to Vassilieff, Charmy and Valadon offers rare female insights from a time when most women's voices were stifled. Examining their work sheds light on the complex ways in which women responded to the evolution of gender roles and sexual mores. These rebellious women painters contravened social decorum, challenged traditional and avant-garde artistic practices and partook in the making of the modern nude.