In Her Words: women artists and life writing before 1920.

2 April 2026

Pigott Theatre, The National Gallery, London, 2 October 2026

Organisers: Dr Susanna Avery-Quash, Senior Research Lead: Partnerships, Networks  and Initiatives, National Gallery; Dr Rebecca Birrell, Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow, University of St Andrews, and Bye Fellow, Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge; Prof Linda Goddard, Professor of Art History, University of St Andrews; and Harriet Loffler, Director of The Women’s Art Collection, Murray Edwards College

For centuries, women artists have produced autobiographical accounts of their lives and careers, using diaries, letters and other types of writing as a means of resistance, reflection, and self-fashioning. Taking a broad geographical approach, this symposium will address how women artists navigate their artistic identities through writing. We aim to explore women artists’ life writings not simply as biography or confession, but as creative and strategic sites of agency, where women articulate alternative scripts for the artistic life.

The conference is a collaboration between the National Gallery, London, the Women’s Art Collection, Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, and the University of St. Andrews. It will build on an earlier symposium at Murray Edwards College, supported by the Association for Art History and taking place on 19 June 2026, which concentrates on women artists' life writing from the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries. This second conference, hosted at the National Gallery, will focus on the period before1920. 

In connection with the Gallery's collection, Artemisia Gentileschi's powerful letters are among the first known writings by a woman artist, while Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun's Souvenirs are often described as the first published retrospective memoir by a woman artist. Rosalba Carriera and Berthe Morisot also wrote diaries and letters, while Rosa Bonheur's (Auto)biography presents a fascinating case of a co-produced narrative by Bonheur and her artist-partner Anna Klumpke. 

Inspired by these or by other examples, we invite short papers on any aspect of women artists’ life writing before 1920, regardless of geography, from those engaged in the field, including curators, writers, critics and researchers. 

Topics could include, but are not limited to: 

  • Women artists’ autobiographical self-fashioning, via diaries, letters, memoirs, and other forms of writing
  • Critical considerations of how we use women artists’ life writing in research and curatorial projects
  • Matrilineal and intergenerational links as expressed or forged through life writing
  • Collaborative life writing projects and shared themes linking women artists’ writings across time
  • Crossovers between life writing and genres including fiction, poetry and criticism
  • Travel writing

Please send proposals (max 200 words or 1500 characters) and a brief bio (max 100 words or 600 characters) for a 15-20 minute paper by completing the form Call for Papers - In Her Words: Women Artists and Life Writing before 1920 – Fill out form by 1 June. 

Participation in the conference is free of charge for speakers (lunch and refreshments included). Standard-fare travel expenses outside London and overnight accommodation will also be paid for, as necessary.