“Confidence” here is both secrecy and care. A whisper creates a private room inside an open landscape, and we are kept at the threshold … able to witness closeness without fully entering it. Painted as American artist Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau built a Paris career against gendered barriers (including late access to formal training), this painting is a subtle insistence that girls’ inner lives including friendship, counsel, and trust are serious subjects. Her wry claim to be “the best imitator of Bouguereau” lands differently here. The polish is academic, but the feeling is psychologically interior, anchored in what cannot be overheard. Two young women sit close on a low stone bench outdoors, tucked beneath dense, shadowed trees. Both have light-to-medium skin tones and dark hair parted at the center and pulled back. The woman on the left faces forward, shoulders slightly rounded inward, hands clasped in her lap as her bare feet rest on the earth. She wears a white blouse with gathered sleeves under a dark bodice and a cool blue-gray skirt, her expression guarded as she meets our gaze. The woman on the right leans in to whisper, lips near her companion’s ear, her body angled protectively toward her. A plum-violet shawl drapes over her blouse and brown skirt. Her bare feet touch the ground beside the other’s. In her left hand she holds a small folded paper, like a discreet note. A red earthenware jug sits in the foreground, and behind them rises a carved stone niche topped with a cross finial, lending the quiet scene a hushed, devotional gravity. The folded paper sharpens that tension, hinting at news, confession, or a promise passed hand to hand. The setting’s shrine stonework nudges the moment toward reflection like intimacy framed as something consequential or even moral. That reading aligns with the painting’s early life in Athens, where it was gifted to the Lucy Cobb Institute (an all-girls school) and cherished as quietly “instructive” for young women.

“La Confidence” by Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau (American) - Oil on canvas mounted on aluminum / c. 1880 - Georgia Museum of Art (Athens, Georgia) #WomenInArt #WomensArt #WomenArtists #ElizabethJaneGardnerBouguereau #GardnerBouguereau #artText #artwork #GeorgiaMuseumofArt #WomenPaintingWomen

Painted in 1946, the work is a threshold-portrait of the artist’s only daughter poised between adolescence and adulthood, with “graduation dress” signaling achievement while the intimate scale and close cropping keep it tender and personal. Born in Catalonia and shaped by European modernism before building a life in the United States, Pere Francesc Daura i Garcia (commonly known as Pierre Daura) often returned to his family as his most enduring subject, making portraits that function like a visual autobiography. Here, a young adult Martha sits in a large chair looking down toward our right. Her light skin is modeled with soft transitions of shadow and warmth, giving her cheek and chin a quiet, lived-in presence rather than a posed perfection. Medium-brown hair is gathered into thick, smooth braids. She wears a bright white dress that catches the light and frames her neck with pearl necklace and shoulders. The simplicity of the fabric makes her face and hair the visual anchor of the composition. The background is muted and unobtrusive with earthy, gray-green tones that recede so Martha’s calm expression and attentive stillness come forward. Martha’s averted gaze creates the feeling of someone being observed in a private moment while also introducing agency and interiority. She is seen, but not claimed, and the restrained palette keeps emotion present without turning sentimental. Pierre’s wife, Louise Heron Blair Daura went to Paris to study art, painted alongside Pierre, and made striking portraits and landscapes that reveal a distinct eye that was often direct, psychologically attentive, and grounded in everyday life. Their partnership wasn’t just domestic; it was creative, too, with both artists sometimes circling the same people and subjects, showing how two different sensibilities can honor the same world. Martha was a major steward of the family’s legacy. She helped ensure that the Georgia Museum of Art became the primary custodian Daura’s work.

“Martha in Her Graduation Dress” by Pierre Daura (Catalan-American) - Oil on canvas / 1946 - Georgia Museum of Art (Athens, Georgia) #WomenInArt #PierreDaura #PereFrancescDauraIGarcia #Daura #GeorgiaMuseumofArt #graduate #FamilyPortrait #art #arte #ArtText #AmericanArt #BlueskyArt #PortraitofaWoman

American painter Louise Heron Blair (aka Louise Blair Daura) had a relatively brief (1928–1932), but accomplished career as an exhibiting artist. Born in Richmond, Virginia in 1905, she graduated with an English degree in 1927 from Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. The following year, she set out for Europe to study art by visiting museums and taking private lessons, eventually making her way to Paris. It was in France that she met and married her art teacher, Catalan artist Pierre Daura, who co-founded a group of abstractionists called Cercle et Carré (Circle and Square) along with Joaquín Torres Garcia and Michel Seuphor in 1929. Though her artwork was not abstract and she never joined the group herself, Blair forged ahead with her own unique style of portraiture, which often accentuated certain facial features—slightly bigger eyes, rosier cheeks, or poutier lips. In this 1929 oil painting, Blair portrays herself with elongated neck and dark bobbed hair, wearing a vibrant red beret. Her dark eyes and gaze are direct, yet somewhat inquisitive. She is wearing a loose-fitting robe with a bold red and dark brown plaid pattern. The robe's texture seems soft and possibly woolen. The color palette is warm, dominated by reds and browns, which are contrasted by cool blues and greens in the background. Behind the woman, the background is somewhat abstract but depicts a leafy, wooded scene painted in muted greens, browns, and blues. There is also a partially visible figure to the left wearing a yellowish garment and holding a basket. The style has hints of Impressionism; brushstrokes are visible, and forms are not sharply defined. Overall, the atmosphere is youthful confidence, with a hint of mystery added by the partially obscured figure in the background.

Self-portrait by Louise Heron Blair (American) - Oil on board / 1929 - Georgia Museum of Art (Athens, Georgia) #WomenInArt #ArtText #WomanArtist #FemaleArtist #SelfPortrait #WomensArt #WomenArtists #LouiseHeronBlair #Blair #UGA #GeorgiaMuseumofArt #AmericanArtist #AmericanArt #art #artwork #1920s

#italianbaroque #baroque #paintinginspo #gmoa #georgiamuseumofart #athensga

In this wonderful portrait, a well-toned African American woman appears as a sophisticated and thoughtful lady, confident in her own skin, with an appreciation for style and art. Seated in a wooden chair near the center of the canvas, Her posture suggests a sense of poise and self-assurance while her gaze conveys thoughtfulness or contemplation of something beyond us. She has crossed her legs in a relaxed and confident manner with her hands clasped together, holding a small open book. She wears a blue dress with a white and blue pattern that creates a marbled effect accented by a necklace with a pendant. The knee-length dress is sleeveless and appears to be made of a light fabric with its fitted waist accentuated by a dark belt. Her dark-colored and closed-toe shoes, possibly pumps draw our attention to her bare legs. African American artist Joseph Delaney grew up in a large family with nine siblings, including his older brother, fellow artist Beauford Delaney. They were both born in Tennessee, and their father was a Methodist minister. In 1930, after some itinerant years, Joseph followed his brother to New York, where he studied at the Art Students League. In NYC, he became a part of the Harlem Renaissance and studied with artists Alexander Brook and Thomas Hart Benton. He worked for the federal government’s Works Progress Administration during the Depression, teaching classes and making art. In 1942 and 1943, he traveled and created a series of works that documented the lives of Black laborers, thanks to a Julius Rosenwald Foundation grant. Delaney was best known for his vibrant scenes of urban life and for his portraits of people including Eartha Kitt, Eubie Blake and Eleanor Roosevelt. He was well aware of how difficult it was for Black artists like himself, writing, “in the fine arts field, the mountain is not coming to Mohammed. . . . Many a black Daniel Boone is clearing rugged terrain and thick swamps and jagged cliff-sides with palette and brush.”

Woman in Striped Dress by Joseph Delaney (American) - Oil on board / 1964 - Georgia Museum of Art (Athens, Georgia) #womeninart #art #portrait #oilpainting #JosephDelaney #UGA #africanamericanart #fineart #womensart #GeorgiaMuseumofArt #Delaney #portraitofawoman #lady #artwork #AfricanAmericanArtist