Bust of a Woman (recto); Draped Figure, Three-Quarter Length (verso) c. 1790

This is Thomas Barker's "Bust of a Woman", a chalk drawing made sometime in the late 18th or early 19th century. Barker was known for his portraits of fashionable society in Bath, England. But what do we make of this woman? Her classical drapery and idealized features place her in the tradition of representing women as allegorical figures or objects of beauty. Yet, there’s an arresting naturalism in the soft rendering of her face. Her gaze is averted, lost in thought; a delicate, intimate rendering of feminine interiority. During this period women artists were fighting for recognition, often excluded from formal training and relegated to domestic subjects. Barker’s representation challenges the overt eroticism often found in the portrayal of women. The drawing’s sensitivity speaks to the complex negotiation between societal expectations and the individual experiences of women in Barker’s time. It captures the tension between visibility and the often-unacknowledged intellectual and emotional lives of women.