Framing Femininities

Women Artists in Interwar France : Framing Femininities is the title of Paula Birnbaum's resplendent new book from Ashgate. Most of the painters she celebrates will be unknown to non-specialist readers – but their self-evident power (combined with the dearth of existing scholarship on most of them) ought to spur a dozen spin-off volumes, and I hope it will. Here are a few of the many gorgeous illustrations Birnbaum has chosen.

Bessie Davidson
Interior
ca. 1937

Clémentine Hélène Dufau
Portrait of the Artist
1911

Marie Laurencin
Self Portrait
1904

Marie Laurencin
Self Portrait
1924

Maria Blanchard
Maternity
1925

Jean Puy
Artist and Model
1911

Angèle Delasalle
Sleeping Woman
1920

Maxa Nordau
Nude

Tamara de Lempicka

Group of Four Nudes
ca. 1925