Page 35 - Contemporary Art and Old Masters

photography studio specialising in views, monuments and
public works. After Charles’s death in 1863, his widow
continued the business and received a commission from
the South Kensington Museum in London (today’s Victoria
& Albert) to photograph the Dauphin’s Treasure held by
the Museo del Prado. Her work, performed outdoors
owing to the low sensitivity to light of early photographic
plates, was among the first examples of the systematic
documentation of Spain’s artistic heritage. It was
attributed until recently to her husband Charles.

LADY COPYISTS
For much of the nineteenth century, women’s artistic
activity consisted essentially of copying the works of Fruits
Julia Alcayde y Montoya (1855-1939), Oil on canvas, 1911.Madrid, Museo
the old masters. Regarded at first as an appropriately Nacional del Prado.. Photo © Museo Nacional del Prado
decorous activity for a lady, it also helped to alleviate the
restriction of being barred from an academic training, and This is a feminised version of copiante, or copyist,
it eventually became a pursuit with lucrative possibilities showing their desire for professional recognition. Only
that led to calls for professional status. Women thus a few referred to themselves as ‘painters’ or ‘artists’.
showed their replicas at the public exhibitions, and Among the women copyists who appear in the registers
it became common to see them copying works in are some painters who achieved considerable public
museums, although it was to be some time before they success, like Rosario Weiss and Emilia Carmena, who was
went unaccompanied. When they signed the register appointed court painter to Isabella II. The queen herself
at the Museo del Prado, most of them added the word submitted copies by her own hand to various fine arts
copianta after their names. exhibitions.

Image of the exhibition galleries “Uninvited Guests”.
Photo © Museo Nacional del Prado.

WORLD of ART 35