‘Now You See Us’: Women Artists in Britain 1520–1920
New exhibition at the Tate Gallery, London
A new exhibition at the Tate Britain Now You See Us spans four centuries of art by more than 100 female artists. It is filled full with revelations. The range of artistic output begins with miniatures by Levina Teerlinc, Flemish “paintrix” at the court of Elizabeth I, including one of the young Gloriana with telltale ginger eyebrows attributed to Teerlinc to Gwen John and Ethel Wright. I have to admit that I was only aware of a handful of these artists myself and the belated acquaintance with such talented artists has been a profound learning experience.
However, missing from such an important historical retrospective is the London painter Winifred Knights (1899–1947) who was barely 20 when critics first called her a genius. At 21, she became the first woman to win the Prix de Rome for her masterpiece of modernism — The Deluge.
She painted this in 1920 as a competition entry while still studying at the Slade School of Art, London. The date makes her painting eligible, yet not included in the new exhibition. An omission that is very much a direct contradiction in the motivation behind the new show.
The Deluge depicts the biblical narrative in Genesis in which God punishes the sins of humankind by flooding the…
