Women in the 19C United States of America: 19th-Century Women in the Countryside by American Artist Theodore Robinson

Tuesday, June 14, 2022

19th-Century Women in the Countryside by American Artist Theodore Robinson

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American Theodore Robinson (1852-1896) studied at the Chicago School of Design & then at the National Academy of Design in New York, before he left on his first trip to France in 1876. Returning to New York 3 years later, he taught painting & worked on mural decorations with John La Farge & Prentice Treadwell. In 1884, he departed once again for France, where he remained for nearly a decade absorbing the evolving Impressionist style. The women painted here are in the countrysides of both America & France.

Theodore Robinson (1852-1896) Angelus

Theodore Robinson (1852-1896) Blossoms

Theodore Robinson (1852-1896) Val D Arconville

Theodore Robinson (1852 - 1896) Detail Debacle 1892

Theodore Robinson (1852 - 1896) Detail Gossips

Theodore Robinson (1852 - 1896) Detail In the Orchard 1895

Theodore Robinson (1852 - 1896) La Vachere (c 1888)

Theodore Robinson (1852 - 1896) Washing Day 1895

Theodore Robinson (1852-1896) Nettie Reading

Theodore Robinson (1852-1896) Detail Stepping Stones

Theodore Robinson (1852-1896) Watching the Cows 1892

Theodore Robinson (1852-1896)

Theodore Robinson (1852-1896) Detail In the Woods 1888

Theodore Robinson (1852-1896) The Layette
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About this blog

In colonial America, men were considered superior to woman in all ways. In a strict patriarchal hierarchy, men controlled not only wealth & political power but also how their children were raised, religious questions, & all matters of right & wrong.

In the early part of the 19Cy, however, many Americans experienced a revolution in gender. The doctrine of “separate spheres” maintained that woman’s sphere was the world of privacy, family, & morality while man’s sphere was the public world -– economic striving, political maneuvering, & social competition. But women were interested in equality.

In 1848, New York passed the Married Woman’s Property Act. Now a woman wasn’t automatically liable for her husband’s debts; she could enter contracts on her own; she could collect rents or receive an inheritance in her own right; she could file a lawsuit on her own behalf. She became for economic purposes, an individual. By 1900, every state has passed legislation modeled after this, granting married women some control over their property and earnings.

In 1870 after the Civi War, the 15th Amendment was ratified, saying, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” African-Americans could vote, but women could not.

But it was not until 1920, that the 19th Amendment was ratified granting women the right to vote. “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”