Female Printmakers, Printsellers, and Print Publishers in the Eighteenth Century
Female Printmakers, Printsellers, and Print Publishers in the Eighteenth Century
A ground-breaking contribution that broadens our understanding of the history of prints, this edited volume assembles international senior and rising scholars and showcases an array of exciting new research that reassesses the history of women in the graphic arts c. 1700 to 1830. Sixteen essays present archival findings and insightful analyses that tell compelling stories about women across social classes and nations who persevered against the obstacles of their gender to make vital contributions as creative and skilled graphic artists, astute entrepreneurs and savvy negotiators of copyright law in Britain, France, Germany, Holland, Italy and the United States. The book is a valuable resource for both students and instructors, offers important new perspectives for print scholars and aims to provide impetus for further research. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.
- Includes interdisciplinary and multi-national perspectives, providing forgotten biographical details and informative analyses of American, English, French, German, Dutch and Italian printmakers, printsellers and print publishers
- Changes persistent assumptions and perspectives surrounding the burgeoning eighteenth-century printmaking and printselling trade
- Presents new evidence of women's innovative, creative and astute contributions to the print trade, showing how they overcame artistic, legal and commercial challenges
Awards
Honorable Mention, 2025 Foundation Book Award, International Fine Print Dealers Association
Reviews & endorsements
‘Martinez and Roman have curated a thoughtfully organised - and utterly necessary - collection of essays that offer insight into the labour and experiences of women printmakers and -sellers. In so doing, they bring to light a virtually unknown aspect of image-making and circulation in the long 18th century. Across its three sections, this book offers an effective mixture of methods, archives, and examples from different national traditions. It introduces readers to artists and entrepreneurs they may otherwise never have encountered and acts as a model for future scholarship.’ Thora Brylowe, Associate Professor of English, University of Colorado, Boulder
‘This fascinating volume is the first to shed light on the considerable - yet, until now, largely invisible – contributions of women to the eighteenth-century print industry. It offers a rich, detailed study which promises to revitalise the study of graphic culture, drawing out across a series of multi-national case studies the ways in which women negotiated the artistic, technical, commercial, domestic, legal and political landscapes they entered. More than a work of simple historical recovery, the volume builds on its meticulously empirical foundations to draw out exciting new narratives about the participation of women in the print trade over the long eighteenth century.’ Rosemarie Dias, Associate Professor of the History of Art, University of Warwick
‘Fulfilling a genuine interdisciplinary need for a book-length study addressing this neglected subject, this collection is the first of its kind. Shining new light on the diverse roles played by women in the trades as etchers, engravers, illustrators, and other makers and sellers of graphic prints, it offers a multi-national perspective addressing European and American women workers and artists as they negotiated the artistic, legal, and commercial challenges of their era.’ Paula McDowell, Professor of English, New York University
‘An excellent collection of wide-ranging essays … offering a rich vein for future scholarship.’ Bridget Quinn, Hyperallergic
Product details
March 2024Hardback
9781108844772
292 pages
235 × 159 × 21 mm
0.57kg
Available
Table of Contents
- Introduction: hidden legacies Cristina S. Martinez and Cynthia E. Roman
- Part I. Self-Presentation and Self-Promotion:
- 1. Show-offs: women's self-portrait prints c. 1700 Madeleine C. Viljoen
- 2. Maria hadfield cosway's 'genius' for print: a didactic, commercial, and professional path Paris A. Spies-Gans
- 3. Caroline Watson and the theatre of printmaking Heather McPherson
- 4. 'Talent and untiring diligence': the print legacy of Angelika Kauffmann, Marie Ellenrieder and Maria Katharina Prestel F. Carlo Schmid
- Part II. Spaces of Production:
- 5. 'Living in the bosom of a numerous and worthy family': women printmakers learning to Engrave in late eighteenth-century London Hannah Lyons
- 6. Divine secrets of a printmaking sisterhood: the professional and familial networks of the Horthemels and Hémery sisters Kelsey. D. Martin
- 7. Yielding an impression of women printmakers in eighteenth-century France Rena M. Hoisington
- 8. Laura piranesi 'incise': a woman printmaker following in her father's footsteps Rita Bernini
- 9. Etchings by ladies, 'not artists' Cynthia E. Roman
- Part III. Competing in the Market: Acumen in Business and Law:
- 10. Mary Darly, fun Merchant and Caricaturist Sheila O'Connell
- 11. A changing industry: women publishing and selling prints in London, 1740–1800 Amy Torbert
- 12. Jane Hogarth: A printseller's imprint on copyright law Cristina S. Martinez
- 13. Shells to satire: the career of Hannah Humphrey (1750-1818) Tim Clayton
- 14. Encouraging Rowlandson – the women who mattered Nicholas JS Knowles
- 15. Female printmakers and printsellers in the early American republic: Eliza Cox Akin and Mary Graham Charles Allison M. Stagg.
