A Mirror of Fair Women

There was a group of painters who became identified specifically with the painting of beautiful women rather than the general concept of beauty in art….  It is in this spirit, the masculine appreciation of feminine appearance, that the 1890s and the turn of the century witnessed the publication of several books dedicated to the beauty of women in art….

Among these books was Theodore Child’s A Mirror of Fair Women: Studies in Beauty and Elegance, published by Harper and Brothers in 1892.  The D’Youville College Archives holds a selection of engravings and etchings from this work, some of which can be viewed here:

Spring, from The Birth of Venus, by Botticelli

Picture 1 of 5

*Quote taken from Bailey Van Hook’s Angels of Art: Women and Art in American Society, 1876-1914.  Published by Penn State Press, 2004, pp.165.