Without a Friend or a Name

Born the daughter of a socially conscious priest, Emily Mary Osborn is the earliest artists we will examine in this gallery.

Born in 1828, Emily Mary Osborn entered a world that had bleak outlooks for women, let alone women artists. At this time, women's role in society was rigidly set in stone. Suffrage had not been enacted yet, leaving women unable to vote or enjoy many rights as male counterparts. The classical art world rejected women from "advanced" studies, including the painting and drawing of the nude. 

It would be that Osborns insistence and perseverence into this artworld was therefore unheard of. Just as conscious as her father, her paintings focused on the plight of women and were popular, enough so that the Queen of England bought one of her paintings. Her most famous work exemplifies this with "Nameless and Friendless".

Painted in 1857, "Nameless and Friendless" is an Oil on Canvas painting. Measuring 30 inches by 40 inches, this painting depicts a female artist in an art gallery, peddling her paintings. She is distressed, her head kept low. Nearby two men ogle her features while looking at a revealing picture of a ballerina, their thoughts unknown but their intention clear. Acting as her antithesis is a well to-do victorian woman in the background, minding her time away from the art.

The title of the work says volumes about Osborn's feelings on the matter. Our unnamed protagonist is literally nameless - none of her male "peers" care to know her name (and it was common practice for men to take female art works and pass them as their own!), and she is but an object to be desired by some men, and looked down by others. She harbors no friendships here.

Osborn's distressed women were a hit. The feelings and emotions evoked come from a place of sincerity and reality within Osborn, and this led to her being called a proto-feminist in many ways. 

Time will have Osborn's name remembered, her memory kept in good company. How do other women artists fare?