Women and art in 19th century Buenos Aires: the French model and the case of Rosa Bonheur

GLUZMAN, GEORGINA

Montréal

Conferencia; L'art des révolutions (1789-1871); 2013

Faculté des arts et des sciences, Département d'histoire de l'art et d'études cinématographiques, Université de Montréal

In this conference, I shall deal with some aspects of my PhD dissertation, which will focus on the interactions between art and women during the long [nineteenth] 19th century, specifically in the city of Buenos Aires, as a way of acknowledging the complexities of the Argentine art scene. My analysis does not follow the traditional periodization of Argentine art, as it seeks to approach phenomena and trajectories that start in the 19th century but survive well into the 20th century. In my dissertation I plan to deal with the complex process of the professionalization of women artists in Buenos Ares, a process that defies linear narratives and traditional chronologies. It is necessary to consider that the Argentine artistic field was only beginning to take shape in the late 19th century. It was only in 1895 that a fine arts museum was founded in Buenos Aires and the first official art academy opened its doors in 1905. Thus, the Buenos Aires case offers complexities that defy the model exemplified by other Latin American countries. I will focus on one aspect of the process of modernization in Buenos Aires: one that deals with magazines, circulation of artistic information, cultural female heroes and artworks housed in public museums. The figure of Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899), the French artist who became a veritable female hero in many parts of the world, is one of the keys to understand this process.