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Exiles for Excellence: Nineteenth-Century Spanish Women Painters in Chaplin's Atelier Michelle Swindell, University of Texas at Dallas The cosmopolitan city of nineteenth-century Paris with its abundance of cafes, museums, and exhibition venues drew a multitude of foreign artists, including Spanish women painters. Unable to enter formal academies in either France or Spain until the 1880s, these women studied under private instructors, who accepted women as their pupils. One such instructor, who was significant especially to artists such as Alejandrina Gesslar Lacroix, Antonia Banuelos Thorndike, and Maria Riva Munoz, was Charles Chaplin. These three women, who will be the focus of this paper, had all received instruction from Chaplin and had become successful artists in terms of receiving awards at exhibitions, selling their work, and being recognized in their own time in contemporary literature. This study has not been undertaken for the sole purpose of revisionist art history, but rather to recognize some key figures of the over 400 Spanish women who had exhibited between the years 1860 to 1910. The scholarship, with the exception of Estrella de Diego's work, has not reflected these women's significant involvement in nineteenth-century Spanish art. By tracing the work and the exhibition practices of these three women, I hope to paint a clearer picture of the woman artist in nineteenth-century Spain and how these women maneuvered the system to become successful during their lifetimes. This study will first examine the conditions of these women within Spain, which includes the ever-present issue of class, women's artistic education in Spain, followed by the eventual pilgrimage that occurs as these women sought growing opportunity in Paris. More specifically, training and exhibiting in Paris was essential to facilitate their level of achievement. |
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