“Woman by a Large Window.” Richard Diebenkorn (American; 1922–1993). Oil on canvas, 1957. Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio.
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This wood block print at Oberlin College is the right-hand sheet of a larger composition “押上村行楽 (Pleasure Excursion at Oshiage Village)” by Japanese artist 勝川春湖 (Katsukawa Shunchō). Three fashionably dressed women occupy the foreground of a quiet rural scene. At left, one woman stands in a pale peach kimono patterned with small blossoms, her body turned in profile and one hand lifted lightly toward her collar. At center, a second woman sits sideways on a bench, twisting back toward us with a folded fan in her hand. At right, a third woman in a darker robe, scattered with pale starburst motifs, leans away in a more private pose. Their black coiffures rise in elegant Edo-period styles, and their layered garments fall in long, soft lines around sandals and a wooden bench. Behind them, a tall stone marker cuts vertically through the composition. Beyond it lie a narrow bridge, rice fields, a footpath with passing figures, low buildings, and pines, turning the scene into a meeting of cultivated style and open countryside. The print gently joins pleasure, fashion, and devotion. The stone marker points to a site associated with the bodhisattva Fugen, known in Buddhist tradition as a protector and guide, so the image suggests that this is not only a stylish excursion but also a visit shaped by pilgrimage culture. Katsukawa treats the women less as individualized portraits than as elegant participants in shared life. Refined textiles and composed gestures appear beside a roadside marker, bridge, and fields, reminding us that sacred places were also social destinations. At the time this print was made, artists in the Katsukawa circle were expanding beyond actor imagery into scenes of feminine grace, seasonal leisure, and contemporary custom. The result feels airy and observant like a moment of stillness in which beauty, travel, and belief briefly align.
“Women Near a Marker for the Bodhisattva Fugen at Oshiage Village” by 勝川春湖 Katsukawa Shunchō (Japanese) - Color woodblock print / early 1790s - Allen Memorial Art Museum (Oberlin, Ohio) #WomenInArt #KatsukawaShuncho #勝川春湖 #Katsukawa #AllenMemorialArtMuseum #UkiyoE #Bijinga #浮世絵 #美人画 #art #artText
“Let There Be Light.” Wynn Bullock (American; 1902–1975). Archival gelatin silver digital print, 1954 (2000 edition). Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio.
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The work of French artist Marie-Elisabeth Lemoine (married name Marie-Élisabeth Gabiou), along with that of her sisters (painters Marie-Denise Villers — a personal favorite — and Marie-Victoire Lemoine) and cousin (Jeanne-Elisabeth Chaudet), is only recently becoming better known. She was among the students of Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, perhaps the best-known female French artist at the end of the 18th century — when women painters were beginning to have more opportunities, though still woefully fewer than men. Here she depicts herself in front of her canvas, palette and brushes in hand. Her style of long elegant green dress with lace shawl, off-set straw hat, and gold hoop earrings, referred to as “à la créole,” a shape seen as emanating from European colonies, date the work to the early years of the French Revolution. Tables like the one here would have held pastels and artistic materials; the top level would likely have been used for items including oil paint, stored at the time in pig bladders, before metal tubes were invented around 1841. The precise meaning of her gesture towards the table is unclear, but she certainly draws our attention, proudly, to her tools. This is one of the three oil paintings by a European woman made prior to 1912 in the Allen Memorial Art Museum, joining Sofonisba Anguissola’s “Double Portrait of a Boy and Girl” of the Attavanti Family and María Josefa Sánchez’s “The Crucified Christ.” Lemoine’s husband, whom she married in 1789, was Chaudet's brother Jean-Frédéric Gabiou. Her work is usually signed "Eli Lemoine" or "Elith Lemoine", and her name is easily mistaken for that of Élisabeth Lemoine, née Bouchet. She has been described by some historians as a pastellist, though no pastels are known to exist by her hand.
“Autoportrait au chapeau de paille et à la palette” by Marie-Élisabeth Lemoine (French) - Oil on canvas / c. 1795 - Allen Memorial Art Museum (Oberlin, Ohio) #womeninart #womanartist #art #femaleartist #womensart #painter #Marie-ElisabethLemoine #Marie-ÉlisabethGabiou #AMAM #AllenMemorialArtMuseum
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Today we celebrate Eva Hesse’s birthday!
Eva Hesse (American, born in Germany, 1936–1970), No title (detail), 1964. Gouache and watercolor on paper. Gift of Helen Hesse Charash, 1983.109.6.
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Raymond Barthé (American, 1901-1989)
African Head, ca. 1935
Terracotta
and
Shoeshine Boy, 1924-28
Bronze-colored terracotta
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amam.oberlin.edu
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Tōshi Yoshida (Yoshida Tōshi 吉田遠志) (Japanese, 1911–1995), “Walking Stone,” 1956. Color woodblock print. Gift of William (OC 1978) and Roberta Stein, 2021.61.10.
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“Woman by a Large Window.” Richard Diebenkorn (American; 1922–1993). Oil on canvas, 1957. Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio.
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“Showgirl in Yellow Costume.” František Kupka (Czech; 1871–1957). Pastel on paper, ca. 1900. Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio.
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Pierre Soulages (French, 1919-2022), “Bleu,” 1950-55. Color intaglio, mixed technique. Allen Memorial Art Museum, Art Rental Collection Transfer via Mrs. F. F. Prentiss Fund. 1972.60.
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Soulages once said, “I love the authority of black—its severity, its obviousness, its radicalism.”
#PierreSoulages (French, 1919-2022), “Bleu,” 1950-55. Color intaglio, mixed technique. @allenartmuseum
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Eva Hesse worked across many mediums and played with shapes, “curving forms and circles bound or bulged out of symmetry.”
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Eva Hesse (American, born in Germany, 1936–1970), No title (detail), 1964. Gouache and watercolor on paper. @allenartmuseum
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