Seeing Ourselves: Women's Self-Portraits

Seeing Ourselves: Women's Self-Portraits presents a comprehensive survey of female artists' self-portraits from the Middle Ages through the present day. Frances Borzello examines hundreds of works while documenting the evolution of this artistic practice across cultures and time periods. The book tracks how women artists navigated social constraints and artistic conventions to represent themselves through their work. Through detailed analysis of selected paintings and photographs, Borzello explores the technical and conceptual choices these artists made in depicting their own images. This historical overview incorporates recently discovered works and new research about previously overlooked artists. The text includes over 200 color reproductions that span centuries of artistic production. The study reveals patterns in how women artists have challenged and redefined self-portraiture, while raising questions about representation, identity, and the female gaze in art history. Through this focused lens, broader themes emerge about women's roles as both creators and subjects of art.

Readers describe this art history book as a thorough examination of female self-portraiture across centuries. Several reviewers note the high quality reproductions and comprehensive scope. Readers appreciated: - Detailed analysis of lesser-known female artists - Cultural/historical context provided for each era - Clear writing style accessible to non-experts - Balance of biographical details and artistic analysis Common criticisms: - Some readers wanted more contemporary artists covered - A few found the chronological organization limiting - Text can be dense in certain sections Ratings: Goodreads: 4.18/5 (45 ratings) Amazon: 4.6/5 (15 reviews) Notable reader comments: "Finally gives proper attention to self-portraits by women that art history has overlooked" - Goodreads reviewer "Good scholarship but needed more artists from non-Western traditions" - Amazon review "The reproductions alone make this worth owning" - LibraryThing user

Mirror, Mirror: Self-Portraits by Women Artists by Liz Rideal This examination of female self-portraiture spans 500 years of art history and includes lesser-known works from global artists.

Women Artists: An Illustrated History by Nancy G. Heller This survey presents women's contributions to visual arts from the Middle Ages to contemporary times, with attention to their self-representation and artistic identity.

Women, Art, and Society by Whitney Chadwick The text explores how women artists navigated social constraints while developing their artistic practices from the Renaissance through modern periods.

The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art by The Guerrilla Girls This analysis documents female artists' overlooked achievements and challenges the male-dominated narrative of art history through statistics and historical records.

Self Portrait: Renaissance to Contemporary by Anthony Bond, Joanna Woodall The volume traces the evolution of self-portraiture across centuries through both male and female artists, providing context for women's place in this artistic tradition.

🎨 Frances Borzello revolutionized art history scholarship by being one of the first historians to specifically study and catalog women's self-portraits as a distinct artistic tradition. 🖼️ The book traces women's self-portraiture from the 16th century to modern times, revealing how female artists often had to include symbols of their respectability (like books or drawing tools) to justify painting themselves. 👗 Many early female self-portraits show the artists wearing their finest clothes and jewelry—not for vanity, but to demonstrate their social status and right to paint, in an era when women artists were often dismissed. 🎓 Prior to this book's publication in 1998, women's self-portraits were typically studied only in isolation, rather than as part of a continuous historical tradition spanning centuries. 🌟 Contemporary artist Jenny Saville's self-portrait "Propped" (featured in the book) sold for £9.5 million in 2018, setting a record for the highest price ever paid for an artwork by a living female artist.