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Lead book review

Why should art have ever been considered a male preserve?

Sixty years ago, women were still excluded from the art history canon, says Laura Freeman

1 May 2021

9:00 AM

1 May 2021

9:00 AM

The Mirror and the Palette: Rebellion, Revolution and Resilience: 500 Years of Women’s Self-Portraits Jennifer Higgie

Weidenfeld & Nicolson, pp.328, 20

Women in the Picture: Women, Art and the Power of Looking Catherine McCormack

Icon, pp.231, 12.99

‘I’m a lady,’ insists the improbable damozel in David Walliams’s Little Britain sketch. I’m a lady, I kept thinking, reading these two books. More: I’m a lady art historian. Oughtn’t I to like books by other lady art historians about lady artists and ladies in art. Why don’t I? Why so out of sync with the sisterhood?

Start with the positive.

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