Paintings of Women

Discover a new collection featuring paintings of women. Each painting featured has been hand-selected by our team of curators, showcasing some of the most exciting emerging artists on the platform as well as artists who have previously exhibited with us. Looking some something a little more specific? Browse our collection of female portraits.

The History of the Female Subject

Paintings of women have long been some of the most recognisable artworks in the history of art. From Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring and da Vinci’s Mona Lisa to Frida Kahlo’s self portraits, female sitters have endured, although the nature of them is continually evolving. Artists such as Paula Rego and Lubaina Himid have reinterpreted the genre and repositioned a woman’s place in art. Motifs such as narrative, character, agency, identity and culture have risen above the traditional aesthetic elements that have been in place since antiquity.

The Female Gaze & Rise Art Artists

Many of the artists featured in the collection are female artists responding to female subject matter. Amy Dury makes figurative paintings that explore themes of collective memory and nostalgia. Inspired by Degas’ observation of figures, Amy’s works are incisive observations of the human body. Her subjects have a haziness to them and exist in their own sense of time and place. Leila Fanner’s paintings explore the mystical power of her female subjects. Raised by a family of women, Leila present a unique female perspective, in which her figures are injected with both mystery and power.

Discover all our female artists.