Art history is filled with great names—most of them male. For centuries, female artists were overlooked, ignored, or even had their works attributed to male colleagues. Even today, they remain underrepresented in museums and textbooks. Yet, there have always been countless talented women who created remarkable art.
Fortunately, this is slowly changing: Female artists are being rediscovered, and their works are being reassessed. In this article, I want to introduce five remarkable women who spent too long in the shadows but unquestionably deserve more recognition. Of course, this is just a small selection—there are many more women in art who have been underrated and insufficiently acknowledged.
Judith Leyster (1609–1660) – The Woman in the Shadow of Frans Hals
Judith Leyster was one of the few successful female painters of the Dutch Golden Age. She specialized in portraits, genre scenes, and still lifes and even managed to run her own workshop as an artist.
Her style was lively, expressive, and often playful, characterized by loose brushwork. She frequently painted scenes featuring musicians, children at play, or convivial gatherings. After her death, many of her works were either anonymized or mistakenly attributed to male artists—most notably Frans Hals, whose style closely resembled hers.
It wasn’t until the 19th century that art historians discovered that some works previously credited to Hals were actually by Leyster. Other paintings of hers were long attributed to Rembrandt or the Utrecht Caravaggisti. Like them, Leyster regularly played with light and shadow in her compositions. The strong contrasts inspired by Caravaggio’s dramatic lighting were highly popular in the 1630s.
One example of this technique is Leyster’s 1631 painting: A Man Offering Money to a Young Woman. It depicts a woman deeply focused on her needlework by candlelight while a man offers her money. Unlike many of her contemporaries, who portrayed similar scenes with a romantic or suggestive tone, Leyster avoided such an interpretation. Instead, the painting is often seen as a commentary on women’s financial dependence and the social realities of her time.
Judith Leyster, Ein Mann bietet einem jungen Mädchen Geld, 1631 | Mauritshuis Den Haag
Rosa Bonheur (1822–1899) – Animal Painter with Trousers and Dedication
Rosa Bonheur was a 19th-century French painter and sculptor, renowned for her realistic depictions of animals. She managed to establish herself in the male-dominated art world and became one of the most celebrated female artists of her time.
Yet despite her success during her lifetime, Bonheur was largely overlooked by art history in later years. Animal painting was not considered “high art,” but that was not the main issue. She was a woman—and she was unconventional. She lived openly with her female partner and led an independent life.
For her studies, she frequently visited livestock markets, slaughterhouses, and rural areas. She wore trousers—an outright scandal for a woman in the 19th century. It wasn’t simply permitted; she had to apply for an official licence—and was required to wear it visibly on her clothing. Even with this authorization, she still faced hostility.
Her works are marked by meticulous attention to detail, dynamic compositions, and a deep understanding of animal anatomy. She became especially known for large-scale paintings of horses, cattle, and sheep. The Horse Fair (Le Marché aux chevaux, 1852–1855) is one of her most remarkable works.
This monumental painting (over five meters wide) depicts horse dealers presenting magnificent animals at a market in Paris. The energy, movement, and anatomical precision of the piece are masterful. Bonheur spent months visiting horse markets and making sketches to study the animals in their natural behaviour.
Suzanne Valadon (1865–1938) – From Model to Artist
The French painter Suzanne Valadon was the first woman admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. Before becoming an artist herself, she worked as a model for Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, and other painters of Paris' bohemian milieu. But she was more than just a muse—she closely observed, taught herself artistic techniques, and eventually began painting on her own, without formal training but with relentless determination.
Valadon developed a bold, distinctive style characterized by strong colours, defined contours, and expressive brushwork. Her portraits and nudes are striking and unembellished. The women in her paintings are not idealized objects but independent figures with natural physicality, confidence, and a strong presence.
Although she was recognized within artistic circles, Valadon was long dismissed as an eccentric rather than a serious artist. Her unconventional lifestyle did not fit the traditional image of a “respectable” woman—she was a single mother, had relationships with younger men, and lived independently.
One of her most famous works, The Blue Room (La Chambre bleue, 1923), is often seen as a deliberate response to Édouard Manet’s Olympia (1863). While Manet depicts a nude woman gazing directly at the viewer with self-assurance, Valadon portrays a fully clothed woman reclining in bed, smoking a cigarette, and seemingly lost in thought.
Both paintings challenge traditional portrayals of the female body, but in different ways: Manet breaks with the academic tradition of idealized nudity, presenting a woman who is aware of being observed. Valadon, however, takes it a step further—her subject is neither object nor muse, but an independent individual who is entirely indifferent to the viewer’s gaze.
Loïs Mailou Jones (1905–1998) – Expressing Black Identity
Loïs Mailou Jones was an African American painter, designer, and art professor who played a significant role in the art world for over seven decades. She was one of the few Black female artists of her time to achieve international recognition.
Jones began her career as a textile designer before turning to painting. Her style evolved over the decades: while she painted in an impressionistic manner in the 1930s, she later embraced bold colours, geometric patterns, and African symbols. Her work blends African, Caribbean, and Western influences.
As a Black woman in the American art scene of the early 20th century, exhibiting her work was nearly impossible. Museums and galleries rarely accepted works by Black artists, and many competitions were restricted to white participants. It was only when she moved to Paris that she was able to work free from the racial barriers of the U.S. and gain recognition for her art. Despite winning numerous awards and teaching for many years at Howard University, she remained overlooked in American art history for a long time.
One of her most famous works is Les Fétiches (1938). It depicts five African masks in bold colours and strong contrasts. This painting merges African art with modern Western techniques and marks one of the earliest instances of Jones’ engagement with the cultural heritage of the African diaspora. It was a significant contribution to the Harlem Renaissance and the discourse on Black identity in art. In this work, Jones consciously explored African heritage for the first time—an artistic focus that would later become central to her career.
Tarsila do Amaral (1886–1973) – Mother of Brazilian Modernism
Tarsila do Amaral was one of Brazil’s most influential artists and a central figure of Brazilian Modernism. She is considered a co-founder of the Antropofagia movement, which embraced European artistic trends but deliberately merged them with Brazilian elements. Her goal was to create an independent Brazilian art form that did not merely imitate Western models, but instead reflected the country's cultural identity.
Do Amaral combined Cubist influences with Brazilian themes and vibrant colours. Her works often depict tropical landscapes, rural scenes, and Indigenous motifs, blended with geometric shapes and a strong simplification of figures. She brought the European avant-garde—particularly Cubism—into a new South American context.
Although she was a key figure in Brazilian Modernism, her name remained in the shadow of male artists for a long time. At the Semana de Arte Moderna (Week of Modern Art) in 1922, she was only marginally acknowledged, while her male contemporaries, such as Oswald de Andrade and Emiliano Di Cavalcanti, received greater attention. Only in recent decades has her contribution to art history been more widely recognized, and today, her works achieve record prices on the art market.
Her most famous work, Abaporu (1928), has become an icon of Brazilian art. The painting depicts a disproportionately large seated figure with a tiny head and oversized feet, set against a barren landscape. The title Abaporu comes from the Indigenous Tupi-Guarani language and means “man who eats people.” It references the concept of Antropofagia (“cultural cannibalism”), an artistic and intellectual movement formulated by Oswald de Andrade (her partner), which proposed “devouring” Western influences and transforming them into a unique Brazilian cultural expression.
Tarsila do Amaral painted Abaporu as a gift for Andrade, unaware that it would become the visual embodiment of the entire movement.
Tarsila do Amaral, Abaporu, 1928 | Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA)
Why These (and Other) Female Artists Should Not Be Forgotten
Art history has long been dominated by men—not because there were no talented female artists, but because they were overlooked, marginalized, or erased from the narrative. Their works were attributed to male colleagues, their names faded into obscurity, or they were never taken seriously in the first place. But change is happening, albeit slowly.
Judith Leyster, Rosa Bonheur, Suzanne Valadon, Loïs Mailou Jones, and Tarsila do Amaral each pushed boundaries in their own way, overcoming obstacles and defying expectations. Today, they are being rediscovered, exhibited, and reassessed. But how many other female artists are still waiting to step out of history’s shadows?
This article offers only a small glimpse—there are countless women who have shaped the course of art history. Which female artists do you think deserve more recognition?
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