The Woman Had Swagger: Artist Amélie Beaury-Saurel
Her work was tough and bold, and so was she
Barred from Paris’s top art academy because of her sex, Barcelona-born French painter Amélie Beaury-Saurel (1848–1924) joined the Académie Julian as a student and ended up running the place. A talent called manly by male judges, she embodied women’s strength in her art and example.
Lush but Tough
Inspired by the academy’s models as well as its artists, Beaury-Saurel chose lush stalks of bamboo to emphasize the toughness of a woman whose rebel stare springs unapologetically from her female experience.
In Beaury-Saurel’s Paris, women artists struggled for exposure on their own terms. The Académie Julian proved to be a crucial outlet for many of them. Beaury-Saurel shared its mission and wed the founder, painter Rodolphe Julian. She headed class sections, chose models, and when he died, she took his place as director.
At the Académie Julian, women artists helped each other shine.
“As L’école des Beaux-Arts was reserved exclusively for men, women were forced to make their own schools of…
