Making Her Mark at Penlee House Gallery & Museum
Self Portrait by Dod Procter, 1920-1930. Private Collection, on loan to Penlee House Gallery & Museum. © The artist's estate / Bridgeman Images. Image credit: Penlee House Gallery & Museum
A new exhibition highlights the creativity, innovation and determination of women who have shaped British art from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day.
A collaboration between Penlee House Gallery & Museum, Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum and Kirkcaldy Galleries, Making Her Mark brings together over 50 works by women artists from their respective collections.
Portraits by Laura Knight, Dod Procter, Ruth Simpson, Elizabeth Adela Forbes and others reflect both the challenges and the adaptability of women artists in the 19th and early 20th centuries: historically restricted from accessing life drawing classes at art schools, woman artists instead looked to female friends for portrait subjects or captured their own likeness in self-portraiture. These portraits play a crucial role in representing female identity, agency and society in a male-dominated art world.
Key examples include Dod Procter’s portraits of herself and artist Eileen Mayo; Laura Knight’s portrait of Freedom Smith, also referred to as Beulah, a member of a Romany Gypsy community who was a recurring sitter for Knight; and Ruth Simpson’s portrait of fellow artist Ella Naper.
This exhibition is the first of a series of 12 major touring shows that will travel to museums and galleries across the UK over the next five years as part of Art Fund’s Going Places programme, made possible with major support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Julia Rausing Trust.
One of the most ambitious touring programmes of its kind, Going Places brings together 20 museums across the UK – from Penzance to Edinburgh, Lisburn to Carmarthen – to share and celebrate the UK’s collections in ways that are rooted in place and shaped by local people. Each unique exhibition is developed in collaboration with local communities, opening up collections in new ways and enabling more people to see their own lives and stories reflected in museums.
Making Her Mark is on display at Penlee House Gallery & Museum until 27 September 2026; it will then travel to Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum from 16 January to 13 June 2027 and Kirkcaldy Galleries from June to October 2027.
