A first in over 120 years!

About to be released to you the reader, beginning this Friday, is a work that is a first in over 120 years. It is a written work inspired by and focused on the memory of Maude Goodman and her art legacy.

Why?

‘There have been, and are, no women painters.’

Thus asserted W.L. George in his 1916 book titled ​The Intelligence of Women.​ He went on to explain their perceived failure in the field. He said it was due to supposed “manual and mental” causes. He thought that potential opponents of this assertion might try to deny said fact, pointing to female artists such as Vigee LeBrun and Berthe Morisot, also that one or two may "shyly whisper Maude Goodman".

While much has been written and documented in modern times to defend and establish the significant lives and works of most of the aforementioned artists, that of Maude Goodman’s has somehow been allowed to dwindle to even less than a whisper. Indeed, many today have not heard of her at all.

This being the case, I believe Maude deserves writing back into the hearts of people, as well as academic art history books - which somehow over time have ever so gradually managed to erase her name and memory from the records.

Ironically, while the female figure and face has frequently featured in art throughout the ages - the faces of many female artists have not been so celebrated, and so, sadly, when I began this research project I initially found that Maude had been allowed to become as faceless as these unknown Victorian female art students of her day...

You will imagine my excitement then, when, while browsing through old Victorian periodicals... I stumbled across one, then two, then three photos of her! Hopefully now, or at least soon, when someone Googles "Maude Goodman" - they will see an image of her face:

Additionally, it's my hope that this research and the story about to be released will shed some light on the success of Maude’s life and work as a female Victorian artist. She not only aspired to greatness but attained to it within her lifetime, exhibiting over 80 works in oil at the best galleries, illustrating children’s books and becoming a household name throughout the British Empire.

As a traditionally Jewish female, born into a lower-middle class immigrant family, Maude was a triple-threat in terms of representing a diverse minority in the field of art. Considering this background, I believe that her particular success as an artist in the face of a somewhat repressive and male-dominated field stands out against other female success stories of the time (such as Beatrix Potter’s or Kate Greenaway’s). She also stands out as a fine artist, as she rubbed shoulders with the greats of her time. These were artists within the Pre-Raphaelite circle and others regularly exhibiting at the Royal Academy(RA) in London.

I believe that Goodman could have risen to become a member of the RA too, but it happened to be the case that after the founding member Angelica Kauffman, there were no female members allowed in the RA for more than 100 years. The first female honorary member was Annie Swynnerton during the 1920's. After her came Laura Knight. And so I see Maude as among the female fine artists who kept holding the torch passed down from Angelica, as it were, until such time as prevailing minds and ensuing opportunities re-opened.

It's easy to overlook the women who blazed the non-RA-member trail for such eventual success - those who bore the brunt of each failed attempt to gain entry as an elected member.

So, while contributing to the Wikipedia article about her when I can, and helping to correct her previously erroneous birth date in certain art databases, these efforts all feel rather cold and disconnected from the real work of bringing Maude's art back into the consciousness of the mainstream mind.

Therefore I feel, and I hope you will concur, that an 'inspired by true events' account of her life, alongside the other strictly biographical research work I am doing, could work well to achieve the above-mentioned aims.

To give you a preview of the upcoming story and its basis, here is a short synopsis:

Set in the Victorian era: Henriette Corkran tries to establish herself as a credible journalist. Join her on her first interview, with the famous female artist, Miss Maude Goodman. She travels to Miss Goodman's home in West Kensington, London. Little does she know as she knocks on the door to that house, how the transformative interview to come will change her. It will motivate Alice to make a life-changing decision. She is admitted entry... and as she walks over the threshold, it becomes the portal to her new life.

Each new part to the story will be released every Friday, here on the blog! So please stay tuned!

It’s my hope that in the course of reading the story and understanding more about Maude's history and success, you will agree with the sentiments of that reporter, Henriette Corkran, who in her 1901 Girl’s Realm article described the story of Maude Goodman’s beginning in art as “the story of the struggle for expression of a talent that could not be checked.”