The Women Who Dared to Paint: Sotheby’s Unveils ‘The Female Triumphant’ | Exhibitions Open 25 January

New York | [phone] | Darrell Rocha |[e-mail] | Amanda Bass |[e-mail]

Sotheby's Unveils the Full Sale Contents of

The Female Triumphant

Celebrating Fearless & Groundbreaking Women Artists

Of the Pre-Modern Era

21 Works by 14 Artists

Spanning the 16th - 19th Centuries Including: Elisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun | Artemisia Gentileschi | Fede Galizia Michaelina Wautier | Marie-Victoire Lemoine | Angelika Kauffmann

Giulia Lama | Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau

FEATURING:

One of the Most Important Works by

Elisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun

- Portrait Painter to Queen Marie Antoinette -

Ever to Appear at Auction

A Female-Charged Scene of Saint Sebastian

Recently Re-attributed to Artemisia Gentileschi

- Most Famous Female Painter of the 17th-Century -

A Depiction of One of Britain's Preeminent Aristocratic Families,

Captured by Angelika Kauffmann

One of the Two Female Founders of the Royal Academy

VICTORIA BECKHAM TO CELEBRATE

THE OPENING OF SOTHEBY'S MASTERS WEEK EXHIBITIONS

Sotheby's To Host an Exhibition of Contemporary Portrait Photography

Artfully Dressed: Women in the Art World

By Carla Van De Puttelaar

Highlighting Sotheby's Masters Week Sales

This January in New York

NEW YORK, 10 January 2019 - Sotheby's is pleased to unveil the full contents of The Female Triumphant - a group of masterworks by 14 trailblazing female artists from the 16th through the 19th centuries, which we will offer across ourMasters Week sales this January in New York.

Calvine Harvey, Specialist in Sotheby's Old Master Paintings Department in New York, commented:

"Over the past five years and across the art world, both curators and collectors have been addressing the gender imbalance in their collections, actively investing in female artists who have historically been overlooked in scholarship and undervalued in the market relative to their male counterparts. For example, Sotheby's set a new auction record for any living female artist just last fall, when Jenny Saville's 'Propped' from 2014 sold for $12.4 million. However, in looking back to the Old Masters, there is still work to be done. In 2018 alone, Sotheby's sold only 14 works by female Old Masters - compared to 1,100 male artists. It's important to remember that the obstacles women artists of the pre-Modern era faced were substantial, and those that broke down those barriers were truly triumphant. It is our hope that shining a spotlight on these important artists will help to grow our knowledge of their work, expand scholarship, and deepen their impact on the ever-shifting trajectory of art history."

To mark his auction event, Sotheby's is thrilled to partner once again with Victoria Beckham. Following a trip to The Frick Collection in New York during which she fell in love with the Masters, the fashion designer hosted an exhibition of works from Sotheby's June 2018 auction of Old Master Paintings in the contemporary setting of her flagship Dover Street store in London. As a female designer hoping to empower women through her collections, Victoria was later inspired by the stories behind The Female Triumphant, and exhibited works by Fede Galizia, Angelika Kauffmann, Elisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun and Marie-Victoire Lemoine in her store in December. Looking ahead to our January exhibition, Victoria will again celebrate these female artists by co-hosting a reception in Sotheby's galleries and an intimate dinner at The Frick for the museum's young patrons and Sotheby's next -gen clients.

Speaking about the collaboration, Victoria Beckham said: "I am thrilled at the opportunity to collaborate once again with Sotheby's and for the first time with The Frick during New York Masters Week. The theme of The Female Triumphant resonates strongly with me - and I am honoured to not only have been able to exhibit a small selection of the works of these female artists in my London flagship store, but to also be able to play a small part in this important moment in Old Masters sales. It is not just the quality of these breathtaking works but also the story telling of these ground-breaking women that is so fascinating and important. Both Sotheby's and The Frick have ignited my love of the Old Masters and it is a privilege to work alongside two institutions I admire so enormously.''

The Female Triumphant will be offered across Sotheby'sMaster Paintings Evening Sale on 30 January,Master Paintings & Sculpture Day Sale on 31 January and the19th-Century European Art auction on 1 February. All 21 works will open for public exhibition in our New York galleries on 25 January.

FEMALE ARTISTS IN THE PRE-MODERN ERA

It was not until the late-16th and early-17th centuries that women painters gained prominence - though they remained a rare occurrence through the 19th century. As it was considered dangerous and inappropriate for women to receive private lessons from a male artist, they were often excluded from apprenticeships and lacked access to proper training. Additionally, most cities in Europe hadlaws or strict rules that barred women from entry into artist guilds and academies, where all important life-drawing classes were held.

Thus, still life and portraiture became the most common genre for women artists - in fact, Fede Galizia was one of the first artists, male or female, to paint pure still lifes in Italy. However, some artists including Artemisia Gentileschi, Giulia Lama and Angelika Kauffmann succeeded in painting religious and historical compositions, even receiving large and important commissions. Most of the women artists who succeeded had fathers, brothers or husbands who they were able to study with at a young age. It was not until societies became more progressive that restrictions eased, for example, the French Revolution led to the opening of exclusive Salons to any artist, including women.

ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI Rome 1593 - circa-1656 Naples

With Artemisia Gentileschi the concept of the true "woman-artist" appeared for the first time in the history of painting, a field which had previously been dominated by men. The daughter of the famous painter Orazio Gentileschi, she liberated herself to claim her artistic independence after having learned the secrets of the trade from her father. Though she was raped by a tutor hired by her father, and underwent a historically famous court case, she did not let the experience stop her from pursuing painting. She called upon the style of Caravaggio - but with her own distinct brushstrokes. Her paintings were celebrated by the noble and powerful families of Rome and Naples, as well as the ruling Spanish viceroys, and fetched high prices. As her success grew, Artemisia became a valued member of society, attending the Florentine court of the Medici, as well as a friend of Galileo Galilei and of the learned Cassiano del Pozzo. She was so respected that she became the first woman in history admitted to the prestigious Accademia del Disegno, founded by Giorgio Vasari.

This January we will offer Artemisia's oil on canvas of Saint Sebastian, an impressive recent addition to the artist's oeuvre (estimate $400/600,000). Sometimes presented by latter-day scholars as a proto-feminist, Artemisia reveled in depictions of female heroines such as Judith and Sisera, as wellas more traditional subjects such as Cleopatra, Danaë, and female personifications of allegories. Here, she once more celebrates female virtue by showing Irene and Lucina giving relief to the Roman deserter Sebastian, after he had been repeatedly wounded by arrows.

ELISABETH-LOUISE VIGÉE LE BRUN

Paris 1755 - 1842

Elisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun was a precocious and talented artist from a young age; she succeeded in gaining entrance to the Académie de Saint-Luc at just 19, a remarkable accomplishment for a woman at the time. By the late 1770s, Le Brun's reputation as a portraitist had become well established. In 1778 she was called to Versailles to paint a full-length portrait of the young Queen Marie Antoinette. The tremendous success of this portrait led to a number of royal commissions and the continued patronage of the Queen and her circle. As a royalist and portraitist of Marie-Antoinette, Le Brun fled France during the Revolution and traveled throughout Europe for many years, spending time in Italy, Vienna, Russia, England and Switzerland. She was greeted warmly in most aristocratic circles, and in the tradition of the courtier artist, was often treated as the social equal of her sitters. As probably the most widely recognized French female artist of the 18th century, her works are highly prized. In 2016, she was the subject if a blockbuster exhibition at the Grand Palais and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Sotheby's Evening Sale of Master Paintings on 30 January will offer one of the most important works by Elisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun to come to auction. Offered with an estimate of $4/6 million, Portrait of Muhammad Dervish Khan, comes to the market for the first time in over a century. Painted in the summer of 1788 and exhibited at the Salon of 1789, when political unrest had begun to boil in France, the work is an evocative account of France's fascination with the East as well as Vigée's resourcefulness in acquiring this unique commission.

Separate release available.

Two additional works by the artist will be featured during Masters Week: an elegant pastel bust-length portrait of the Irish