Why Is Men's Art Seen Differently Than Women

Main Body

Why is women’s art seen differently than men’s?

The reason why this question is being asked is simply to understand why men’s art is seen greater than women’s. What makes them better? What makes them stand out? Is it simply due to being a male that has created the work or is it due to of the way we are made to look at things, for example, that masculine beings are better than feminine, that they are seen as stronger and femininity which is seen as weakness. There is no evidence that shows that the work that men and women do is any different. Their technique of work could be different as their theme of work. However there is no way to determine who did which piece better a man or a woman. Artists always have a different way of

Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers, (1888) oil painting, 92.1 x 73 cm

It’s such a simple yet beautiful piece of work and we don’t look at it as feminine. We begin to analyse the reasons why he picked sunflowers as his subject matter and his use of so much yellow.

Another example would be Monet’s painting of Camille his first wife and a child. Fig2.Claude Monet, Camille Monet et un enfant au jardin (1875) oil painting, 64.7 x55.3 cm

This is another example of a painting that could be seen as a feminine work. Instead we notice a painter who wanted to capture a family moment to perhaps cherish and remember. We don’t view it as his feminine side coming through only since he painted something that has a meaning in his life and has a personal memory. We view it as him showing the world his wife and possibly their

They are seen as mothers, daughters or wife’s instead of artists and their work is valued less since they are women and not men. Just like in the early stages when art became popular among men, they were classed as the artists. They were sponsored by influential people who they then painted. The sponsors provided various artists with material that they needed to complete work that they could not themselves afford. Women back then were seen as we would call it housewives. Their role was to look after the kids, make food and look after the farm until the man got home. If they were interested in painting or any other art work it was seen as nothing more than a pass time or a hobby. As we all know Queen Victoria along with her husband, Prince Albert had an eye for art. Queen Victoria even enjoyed creating some art work herself, but it was seen nothing more than just a way to pass time, even though she did have a lot of influence on people her work was not seen like any of the famous men artists. However, if it was her husband who had created the works, perhaps they would be valued much more than they are now. Perhaps the Queen would be classed as his sponsor, but that’s not the case. As we now notice she was seen nothing more than a woman and not fit to run a country all due to the fact that she was a woman and not a man. Furthermore critics and art historians