Film cycle: Women masters’ lives: the legacy and testament of women artists (17^th to 20^th centuries)

This film portrait employs a documentary approach to pay tribute to Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), an icon of the feminist struggle and of artistic revolution. It aims to reflect her two sides: the symbolic and iconic Frida, celebrated and reproduced ad nauseam, and Frida the private individual, who is less well known but equally essential for an understanding of the significance of her work. This session links to the exhibition’s final section, Emancipated Women.

Italy, 90 minutes.

This documentary reveals not only the ability of the Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653) to achieve professional status in an age when women were almost unable to operate in the art world, but also her artistic evolution and capacity to overcome the obstacles and adversity she faced during the course of her life. The film illustrates the exhibition’s first section, entitled Sisterhood I: La causa delle donne.

UK, 57 minutes.

This drama focuses on the romantic relationship between a young women and the female artist who has been commissioned to paint her portrait. It offers a perceptive analysis of how the social canons and archetypes of the era determined not only emotional relations but also how artistic creation was viewed. Sciamma’s film helps us to understand the social and cultural context in which women artists of this period lived, complementing the exhibition’s third section entitled Enlightened Women and Academy Members.

France, 120 minutes.

The life and work of Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899) are reflected in this documentary produced by O2B Films and the Musée d'Orsay in conjunction with the major exhibition held at that museum in 2022. It encourages viewers to rediscover the most famous French woman painter of the 19^th century, a key figure in female emancipation and a pioneer of animal rights, connecting with the section of the exhibition entitled Orientalism / Genre Painting.

France, 60 minutes.

This biopic narrates the life of the German artist Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876-1907), from her early struggle to define a personal artistic language and her confrontations with the male figures of her circle to her time in Paris and her death a few days after giving birth, in a film that presents her evolution as an artist. It connects with the exhibition’s sixth section, entitled New Types of Motherhood, and reflects the way in which Modersohn-Becker portrayed her naked body and its changes during pregnancy, becoming a reference for a new way of understanding and interpreting a mother’s body.

Germany, 123 minutes.

This film, which locates the Impressionist painter Berthe Morisot (1841-1895) in her creative context, introduces us to a 25-year-old young woman engaged in her struggle to become a painter and achieve independence. This session connects with the exhibition’s seventh section, Sisterhood II. Rapport, given that both the film’s standpoint, which solicits the viewer’s empathy, and the presence of women in Morisot’s works evoke the idea of united women that exists in the collective imagination, albeit ones who enacted or endured the roles and archetypes imposed on them by patriarchy.

France, 100 minutes.