In Her Words: Women Artists and Life Writing before 1920 | Women and the Arts Forum Conference 2026
- Region: East of England
- Type: Conference
- Cost: Free
Location: The National Gallery London, and Online
For centuries, women artists have written about their lives and careers using diaries, letters and other documents. This was a means of resisting expectations, reflecting on their experiences and shaping their own sense of identity.
Taking a broad geographical approach, this conference will address how women artists navigate their artistic identities through writing. Rather than viewing these writings as only biography or confession, we will explore them as creative and strategic spaces of self-expression and agency. Women used writing to voice their experiences and imagine different ways of living an artistic life.
The conference is a collaboration between the National Gallery, London; the Women’s Art Collection, Murray Edwards College, Cambridge; and the University of St. Andrews. It will build on an earlier symposium at Murray Edwards College, supported by the Association for Art History, which took place on 19 June 2026 and focused on women artists’ life writing from the 20th and 21st centuries. This second conference, hosted at the National Gallery, will focus on the period before 1920.
The conference will conclude with a drinks reception for in-person attendees.
Schedule
10am – Registration opens
10.30am – Welcome by Christine Riding
10.35am – Introduction by Susanna Avery-Quash
PANEL 1 – Life writing and self-fashioning
Chair: Dr Rebecca Birrell
10.40am – Helena Anderson (Amgueddfa Cymru-Museum Wales & University of Bristol), “‘A very important event!’: the role of the letter in Gwen John’s artistic practice”
10.55am – Kellie Sabin (Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum), “Beyond the Seeming Authority: Identity, performance and multiplicity of selves in Paula Modersohn-Becker’s letters and journals”
11.10am – Dr Apolline Malevez (Ghent University), “Queer Landscapes: Louise Héger and the Writing of the Non-Binary Self”
11.25am – Questions and Discussion (20 minutes)
BREAK (30 minutes): 11.45am –12.15pm
PANEL 2 – Collective and comparative approaches
Chair: Dr Susanna Avery-Quash
12.15pm – Dr Caroline Watkinson (City St Georges, University of London), “Fragmentary Selves: Life-writing and the Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood”
12.30pm – Mattea Gernentz (University of Glasgow), “Daughters of Impressionism: Illuminating Nature and Friendship in the Belle Époque”
12.45pm – Professor Linda Goddard (University of St Andrews), “Writing and Ambition: The Diaries of Women Artists in Paris Around 1900”
1pm – Questions and Discussion (20 minutes)
1.20pm – Lunch (1.5 hours; tour of the National Gallery)
PANEL 3 – Constructing a Legacy
Chair: Prof Linda Goddard
2.50pm – Paloma Ley (University of Edinburgh & Fitzwilliam Museum), “‘Jewels of Sculpture Made by Her Hand’: Reassessing Luisa Roldán’s Madrid Period Through Her Letter Writing (1692-1706)”
3.05pm – Caroline Gould (University of Sheffield & National Portrait Gallery), “‘A Useful Purpose’: The life writing and art of Ellen Sharples (1769-1849)”
3.20pm – Professor Susannah Thompson (Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University), “‘How Edmonia Lewis Became an Artist’: An Autobiographical Construction”
3.35pm – Questions and Discussion (20 minutes)
BREAK (30 minutes) 3.55pm–4.25pm
PANEL 4 – Modulated Voices
Chair: Dr Jack Hartnell
4.25pm – Dr Tori Champion (Rhode Island School of Design), “Obituary as Autobiography: Madeleine Françoise Basseporte’s Posthumous Life Writing”
4.40pm – Dr Rachel Sloan (The Courtauld Gallery), “A Memoir by Stealth? Harriet Lister’s Memoir of Amos Green”
4.55pm – Dr Jennifer Thatcher (Manchester Metropolitan University), “Interviewing Rosa Bonheur”
5.10pm – Questions and Discussion (20 minutes)
5.30pm – Concluding remarks by Dr Rebecca Birrell
5.45pm – Drinks reception
6.30pm – Drinks reception concludes
To book online tickets, click here: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/events/conference-in-her-words-women-artists-and-life-writing-before-1920-online-access-02-10-2026
To book in person tickets, click here: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/events/conference-in-her-words-women-artists-and-life-writing-before-1920-women-and-the-arts-forum-conference-2026-02-10-2026