A View of One’s Own showcases ten British female artists working between 1760 and 1860. Despite striving to achieve recognition during their lifetimes, their art has remained mostly unknown and their works largely unpublished. This gem of a catalogue works to set that right, presenting a splendid group of landscapes in various media. The catalogue is published to accompany an exhibition at The Courtauld Gallery in London.
When the Royal Academy was founded in 1768, its members included two women, yet there would not be another female academician until Dame Laura Knight was elected in 1936. Despite this institutional exclusion, women artists in Britain continued to train, practice, and exhibit during this period, particularly in the field of landscape watercolours.
A View of One’s Own accompanies an exhibition of landscape drawings and watercolours by a group of inspiring British women artists working both in Britain and abroad between 1760 and 1860. Featured artists include Harriet Lister and Lady Mary Lowther, who were among the first to depict the Lake District, and Amelia Long, Lady Farnborough, one of the first British artists to travel to France following the Napoleonic Wars. It sheds new light on artists who achieved recognition during their lifetimes as well as on those whose work is ripe for rediscovery.
Artists included: Harriet Lister; Mary Lowther; Mary Mitford; Elizabeth Susan Percy; Mary Smirke; Eliza Gore; Fanny Blake; Amelia Long; Elizabeth Batty; Richenda Gurney
A View of One’s Own: Landscapes by British women artists, 1760–1860
Edited by Rachel Sloan
Edited by Rachel Sloan, with contributions by Susan Owens,
Rachel Sloan and Paris A. Spies-GansJanuary 2026
Paperback, 210 x 210 mm
72 pages, approx 55 illustrations
ISBN: 978-1-913645-97-7Exhibition
The Courtauld Gallery, London
28 January- 20 May 2026About the authors
Dr Rachel Sloan is Associate Curator for Works on Paper at The Courtauld Gallery, London. Dr Paris A. Spies-Gans is a historian and art historian, with a focus on gender and culture in Britain and France during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. She is currently a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. Dr Susan Owens, formerly Curator of Paintings at the V&A, is an independent scholar. She has published widely on 19th-century British art and culture and has a particular interest in drawing and landscape.