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Fernanda Guizar

ART 149

December 2021

The Female Sexuality Through Art

Many subjects were touched throughout the length of this class, and the many artists

described teaching us about feminism, the power of women, and how to stand up in a world of

criticism and where men doubt us. With this paper I want to expose the subject that many artists

contemplate, that is expressed with their art, and that was, and still is a taboo to our society,

female sexuality. There are multiple women artists that through their paintings, sculptures, and

exhibitions demonstrate to us that talking about female sexuality is not something to be ashamed

of. They expand our understanding of the female body and its sexuality. With these artworks, we

are taught about female sexuality, how important it is to recognize oneself and express its

emotions, sexuality, and pleasures with pride. Many artists were recognized for their work

representing how society shamed women's sexual life, how it was represented as a bad thing, and

how we were supposed to hide it from the world. I believe this topic connects with the integrity

and purpose of feminism. As feminism at its core is about equality of gender. Validating

women’s experiences, strengths, knowledge, and more. Being inclusive to all. By this artist

exposing the female sexuality to the world and expanding our understanding of it through their

artwork and using the female body as a main source of art, they are communicating women’s

experiences, the strength of their body, how they can also have an open sexual lifestyle such as

men and teaching society the pleasures of the female body. We have seen multiple times how

men are prised for their sexual life, going around having sex with different women, and being

open about their body and sexuality, while women are told to remain quiet, to keep it a secret,
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and most of the time are shamed for having an active sexual life. I found the artwork of artists

such as Artemisia Gentileschi, Angelica Kauffman, Berthe Morisot, Romaine Brooks, Ghada

Amer, and Monica Sojo inspiring because they were not afraid of telling the truth, of exposing

female sexuality, and with their work, teach us and expand our knowledge of female sexuality

along with the anatomy of the female body and its pleasures.

Not everything started with women being brave enough to spread their message using

their work, art, and performances. Showing the female body as a way to express sexuality was

something not seen at all and very fraud upon by society. Starting this conversation of the

exploration and understanding of female sexuality, we can take a look and analyze the work of

Artemisia Gentileschi. Born in 1593 in Italy, she was one of the first female artists of the

seventeen century to achieve success and be recognized for her works of art. During her teenage

years, Artemisia experienced one of the most violent scenes of her life and one that would mark

the rest of her work. She was raped by Tassi and decided to take it to court, which was mainly

focused on Tassi’s relationship with the Gentileschi family, and the legal property they shared,

which seemingly included the daughter. In the book Women, Art, and Society by Whitney

Chadwick, she mentions one of Mary Garrad’s arguments about the events that happened to the

Gentileschi family regarding the trial, “the complete transcript of the rape trial, has convincingly

shown how this public scrutiny of female sexuality reshaped those issues of gender and class

relevant to Gentileschi’s subsequent emergence as a major artist.” (Chadwick, 106). With this

tragedy also came Artemisia’s first known painting completed at the age of 17 named Susanna

and the Elders, 1610. Many arguments and analyses of this painting have been made, and was

depicted as the pure reflection of Artemisia's feelings, and how the society of the time viewed the

female body. The majority of her work was affected by her experience with men, and how she
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was raped. Through her paintings, she shows the world the sexual dynamics of society, how the

female body was displayed, and the aggression of men towards women, and the disgust and

resistance of women. Another work of art by Artemisia titled Cleopatra, 1633 shows the scene of

Cleopatra’s suicide discovered by two of her female workers. By showing the women’s body

naked in a bed and its position, Artemisia is describing how Cleopatra “had been exoticized as a

sexual temptress by her male counterparts.” (The Art Story). This all comes to show how women

started to represent the female body and repulsions towards how it was sexualized by the men.

Artemisia shows us the power female have over their bodies and reflects on the disgusting side

of the world where men view the female body as a sexual object. Through her paintings, she tries

to reclaim her own body and the sexual life she lost when she was raped. Many women of the

century were inspired by Artemisias paintings and decided to empower the female body as their

sexual life and sexual identity grew.

Following the path of Artemisia, we can encounter multiple women artists of the century

that started using the female body and representing it through their paintings. One of them being

Angelica Kauffman. Born in 1741, she grew up in Switzerland and traveled in her youth with her

father, who was also a painter. Despite having no formal training, she focused on remaking and

coping artworks and ended up joining an English group of painters in Italy when she was older.

Through them, Angelica started her journey in large-scale historical works, which mostly

included the women's nude bodies. Due to her lack of training and how talented she was, it was

clear the inferiority of her work compared to that of the male painters she worked with. One of

her famous paintings titled Zeuxis Selecting Models for Helen of Troy, 1780 in which she

depicts an image of ancient times, which was considered the highest form of art done by men.

Kauffman showing she could portray images of this sort, especially emphasizing the male gaze
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and how the female body was sexualized by society proved how women could also be able to

paint and portrait their bodies. She shows us how the female body was sexualized all the time

and women were only used as objects for paintings, but her painting goes more in-depth as to

how a woman can learn to know her own body and draw it for everyone to see. Her legacy of

work continues and is an inspiration to many, as described in an article by The Art Story website,

“Kauffman’s is a very long-standing influence that continues to grow through the lineage and

progression of self-portraiture.” (The Art Story). Proving that women could also study the female

body and learn to draw it, to empower it, and sexually explore oneself was a big deal of the time,

and many more female artists decided to continue this exploration through the centuries.

Moving on several years we can encounter the talented artist Berthe Morisot. Born in

1841 in France, she grew up in a very supportive environment, surrounded by great painters,

including her sister. Accomplishing greatness from a very young age, Morisot was a very

well-known artist of the time. She later married a wonderful man that helped her accomplish her

goals, and even with such strong support from all her family, many doubts about her work still

followed Morisot. The main focus of her paintings, as well as those of her great friend Cassatt,

exhibited the boundaries of her sexual life and class. As described by Chadwick in her book,

“Morisot’s and Cassatt’s paintings demarcate the spaces of masculinity and femininity through

their spatial compressions and their juxtapositions of differing spatial systems.” (Chadwick,

238). Most of Morisot's works of art depict the delicacy of the female body, demonstrating how

they examine their sexuality and explore their image, mostly painting private aspects of the

women's life and motherhood. Paintings such as Psyche, 1876 which portraits a teenage girl

looking at herself in a mirror show us how women contemplate their own body from a young

age. Through her paintings, Morisot teaches us how from a young age we can start a sexual life,
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be more self-aware of our bodies and explore our images. A topic that was not talked about at

that time, sexual awakening started to be presented in paintings of various female artists.

Following the lead of sexual awakening, and exploring one's sexuality, we can analyze

Romaine Brooks's art, as she was very widely criticized because of the aspect of her paintings

due to the opaque colors or it, and the depiction of the female body and gender-neutral garments.

Brooks was an American artist, born in Rome in 1874, spending most of her life in Paris to

escape the suffering of her household. Her work has been diminished and marginalized in history

because of her decision of being a portraitist, and her style which was not following the trends of

the time. As described in an article by Smithsonian magazine, written by Roger Catlin, he

describes Brooks's art, “her chosen artistic style was also at odds with the increasingly

fashionable cubist abstraction of the era.” (Catlin). Even if she was not well welcome in the art

community, she was always open about her sexuality. She was one of the first female artists to

express her sexual identity through her art. With her painting titled Self-Portrait, 1923, Brooks

demonstrates the power that clothes have to gender roles and adds to the colors of the painting,

depicting muted tones. In this painting she demonstrated herself in non-gender-conforming

clothes, she made the statement of her career. Through several of her portraits and images,

Brooks teaches us how important it is to know oneself, to explore our sexuality, and not be afraid

to show the world our true self. She continues the ongoing argument of how art can teach us and

open our knowledge about the female body, its sexuality and pleasures, and how to be open

about it to the world.

Continuing to spread the word about female sexuality and being aware of our bodies, we

have the female artist Monica Sjoo and her many controversial artworks. She was born in

Sweden in 1938, and since her early childhood, was very connected to nature. She spent most of
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her adult life exploring, learning, and studying ancient women’s lunar mysteries and

goddesses-worshiping religions, which inspired most of her artwork and paintings. One of her

most famous pieces of art, and one that sparked a lot of controversies titled God Giving Birth,

1969 is an explicit image of a woman giving birth, in the background we can see what was

recalled to be the galaxy. Because of the name of the paintings, and how explicit it was with the

imagery, it was widely criticized. As Chadwick explained, “a birth image inspired by a

goddess-worshiping religion…, aroused intense controversy, and the artist was threatened with

legal action on charges of blasphemy and obscenity.” (Chadwick, 373). With more paintings like

this one, Sjoo reveals the truth of the female body, drawing explicit imagery of it, and showing

how the woman was worshiped in the ancient years. Many people felt threatened by her exposure

of the female body, which was the whole point of her paintings. Sjoo was mainly focused on

studying the reproductive part of the female body, teaching us that expanding our knowledge of

our sexuality and pleasures is not something to be afraid of. Through her art, she shows us the

female body, how it should be praised and not diminished, and with images like Good Giving

Birth, exposes the sexual part of the female.

The female body and its sexuality were and still is something controversial to expose and

explore. Through her powerful, meaningful, and erotic embroideries, the great artist Ghada

Amer, born in Egypt in 1963, explores the meaning of the female sexuality and describes how it

is viewed by the male gaze, how the body is used and teaches us that exploring oneself is

important to know its pleasures. As the previous artists discussed, she expands our knowledge

about being self-aware of our sexuality and being open about our self, about our sexual life.

Coming from a traditional and very cultural place, Amer uses these ideals and symbols and turns

them around in her paintings. The artist herself describes her artwork as a form of expression of
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sexuality and identification. She has expressed that the reasoning behind her works of art is to

teach women to love their body, be open bout their sexuality, and explore their sexual life and

pleasures, “I believe that all women should like their bodies and use them as tools of seduction,

Amer stated in a relation to her work and its topics.” (Ficpartik). We can see the depiction of this

in her piece of work titled You My Love, 2011. In this artwork we can see various female bodies

in sensual positions, clearly sexually touching each other. This shows the world how women can

recognize their sexual life, be open about it, and not be ashamed of it. Many other of her works

illustrate similar images and create controversies around the world. Amer is just another example

of how artists teach us and expand our knowledge of the female body and its sexuality. How we

can be open about it and stand up for ourselves in a world that revolves around men.

After learning about the female body, its sexuality, and how it was viewed by society

changed, grew, and became a bigger subject, we can conclude that we still have a long way to go.

Many artists indeed teach us about the female body, how we can talk about our sexuality without

shame, and that we have to step up in a world of criticism and where men are praised for their

sexual life, and women are expected to remain quiet. It is important for all women to express

themselves, to explore their sexual life, find who they are, their identity, and not be afraid to be

open about it. We can be inspired by these multiple artists and their creations, and how they

approach the talk of female sexuality during their lifetime. Through art, we can expand our

knowledge of the female body, its sexuality, pleasures and learn more, explore more, about our

images and body. If we keep this talk ongoing and help these artists to spread their message, we

can make more women learn and understand their selves, their sexual identity, to not be afraid to

use their body in a sexual matter and not be ashamed of it.

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Image Bibliography

Susanna and the Elders, 1610 Artemisia Gentileschi

Cleopatra, 1633 Artemisia Gentileschi

Zeuxis Selecting Models For Helen of Troy, 1780

Angelica Kauffman

Psych, 1876 Berthe Morisot

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Self-Portrait, 1923 Romaine Brooks

God Giving Birth, 1969 Monica Sjoo

You My Love, 2011 Ghada Amer

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Works Cited

“Angelica Kauffman Biography, Life & Quotes.” The Art Story,

www.theartstory.org/artist/kauffman-angelica/life-and-legacy/.

“Berthe Morisot Biography, Life & Quotes.” The Art Story,

www.theartstory.org/artist/morisot-berthe/life-and-legacy/#nav.

“Biography.” Monica Sjöö, www.monicasjoo.net/biography-1.

Catlin, Roger. “The World Is Finally Ready to Understand Romaine Brooks.”

Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 8 July 2016,

www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/its-time-acknowledge-romaine-brooks-early-

20th-century-artist-180959725/.

Chadwick, Whitney, and Flavia Frigeri. Women, Art, and Society. Thames and Hudson,

2020.

Ficpatrick, Milja. “Ghada Amer.” Widewalls, 30 May 2016,

www.widewalls.ch/artists/ghada-amer.

“Gentileschi Paintings, Bio, Ideas.” The Art Story,

www.theartstory.org/artist/gentileschi-artemisia/.

Greenberger, Alex. “Angelica Kauffman Was One of 18th-Century Europe's Most

Famous Portraitists, but She Was Nearly Forgotten.” ARTnews.com, ARTnews.com, 6 May

2020,

www.artnews.com/feature/angelica-kauffman-neoclassicism-why-is-she-famous-1202686067/.
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“Romaine Brooks Paintings, Bio, Ideas.” The Art Story,

www.theartstory.org/artist/brooks-romaine/.

“The Second Museum of Our Wishes: Monica Sjöö.” Moderna Museet i Stockholm, 25

Feb. 2016, www.modernamuseet.se/stockholm/en/2010/11/09/monica-sjoo/.

Solomon, Tessa. “Berthe Morisot, Impressionism's Most Relentless Innovator, Is Finally

Receiving Her Due.” ARTnews.com, ARTnews.com, 14 Jan. 2021,

www.artnews.com/art-news/artists/berthe-morisot-who-is-she-why-is-she-important-1234581283

/.