The Artist's Sister in Law 1881

Marie Bashkirtseff painted her sister-in-law with oil on canvas, and although the date of the work is unknown, it probably dates from the 1880s. Bashkirtseff was working in Paris at a time when the French Academy was beginning to grudgingly allow women to train as artists but they were still excluded from many of the most important prizes and exhibitions. You might say that Bashkirtseff was making a virtue out of necessity by painting a domestic scene, depicting her sister-in-law, but she was also challenging the norms of the day. The work shows the sitter in profile, looking away from the viewer, holding what appears to be a letter or pamphlet in her hand. She is fashionably dressed, but not ostentatiously so. She is presented as an intelligent and independent woman, rather than a passive object of beauty. The painting is a reminder that art is always made in a specific social and institutional context, and that it can be used to challenge the status quo, although we need to delve into archives and social histories to properly understand that context.