A Bold Painter and Outspoken Diarist Who Left Her Mark — “I know that I should become somebody; but with skirts — what can one do?” Plenty, as it turned out. Marie Bashkirtseff (1858–1884) made her bold voice heard during her short lifetime. Art … is as much a source of happiness for the beginner as for the master. One forgets…

A Painter of Searchers and Speculators Who Gave in Too Soon — Fruit and flowers were all very charming, but Marie Bracquemond (born Marie Quivoron in France’s Brittany in 1840) didn’t want to paint them. Instead, she populated her outdoor scenes with individuals. Their searching, speculative expressions betray far more sophistication than she got credit for from the art establishment, then and…

Novels have a purpose: They are written to be used. One use of the novel, for writer and readers, is interpreting life. Novels Don’t Want to Teach You Lessons Novels aren’t written to teach you lessons, like those gruesome cautionary tales where children who break rules or tell lies tumble to their deaths or are eaten by…

An immigrant found breathing room in Paris as a portraitist with an empathetic eye for intimate connections. — A portrait painter who exposed connections between souls, German-born Swiss painter and pastelist Louise Catherine Breslau (1856–1927) evolved from the asthma-ridden daughter of a Jewish doctor to a self-supporting artist in demand during a time when women artists were discounted. …

Part Three: Entertainment and Escape Many novelists write hoping to share a glimpse of what it is to be human. But what about just kicking back with a great story? Entertainment and escape from the ball-and-chain sameness of everyday reality are perfectly good reasons to read novels. And many novelists write them for that reason. A Bad Reputation …

Part One: What Makes a Story? — Look at yourself in a reflective surface — a pool of water, a car’s side mirror, the bowl of a metal spoon. Do you see yourself clearly, or is the image blurred or even upside down? Shakespeare once wrote that an actor holds a mirror up to nature. A good…

Her illustrations highlighted class distinctions between women — The illustrations of painter and engraver Alice Barber Stephens (1858–1932) featured women who stepped outside the domestic sphere at their peril. Creating from the traditionally male business sphere, she helped other women artists thrive. “Stephens [has]been marginalized in scholarly texts and museum exhibitions…which tend to centralize the contributions of male…

Her work was tough and bold, and so was she — Barred from Paris’s top art academy because of her sex, Barcelona-born French painter Amélie Beaury-Saurel (1848–1924) joined the Académie Julian as a student and ended up running the place. A talent called manly by male judges, she embodied women’s strength in her art and example.

Her Women Evade the Male Gaze, Find Their Own Viewpoints — French painter Eva Gonzalès (1849–1883) spent her artistic career shrugging off the male gaze. In her work, she expressed her own outlook. Early on, exposure to a certain manly stare nearly derailed her career. Édouard Manet, perhaps to please her literary father, painted the young artist’s portrait. Awkwardly posed at…