National gallery virtual event
Wednesday 11 November | 17:30 to 18:30
About the exhibition
"I will show Your Illustrious Lordship what a woman can do"
In 17th-century Europe, at a time when women artists were not easily accepted, Artemisia was exceptional. She challenged conventions and defied expectations to become a successful artist and one of the greatest storytellers of her time.
Artemisia painted subjects that were traditionally the preserve of male artists and for the male gaze; transforming meek maidservants into courageous conspirators and victims into survivors.
In this first major exhibition of Artemisia’s work in the UK, see her best-known paintings including two versions of her iconic and viscerally violent ‘Judith beheading Holofernes’; as well as her self portraits, heroines from history and the Bible, and recently discovered personal letters, seen in the UK for the first time.
Follow in Artemisia’s footsteps from Rome to Florence, Venice, Naples and London. Hear her voice from her letters, and see the world through her eyes.
Image attached: Detail from Artemisia Gentileschi, 'Self Portrait as a Lute Player', about 1615-18. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT Charles H. Schwartz Endowment Fund 2014.4.1 ©️ Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art.
Watch the event
- Welcome and update presentation from Jamie Black, Partner & Head of Private Clients at Sarasin & Partners
- Markets overview from Guy Monson, CIO at Sarasin & Partners
- ‘Guided tour’ of the Artemisia exhibition with the Curator, Letizia Treves
- Live Q&A session with Dr Richard Stemp, chaired by Randal Dunluce, Partner at Sarasin & Partners
Tour information
The tour
Letizia Treves, The James and Sarah Sassoon Curator of Later Italian, Spanish and French 17th-Century Paintings
Letizia joined the Gallery in April 2013 following a long career in the Old Master Paintings Department at Sotheby’s, where she was a Senior Director and the principal worldwide specialist in Italian paintings. Having studied History of Art as an undergraduate at Cambridge University (1992-1995) and completed her MA in Renaissance Studies at the Courtauld Institute of Art (1995-1996), Letizia joined Sotheby’s in 1996. Since then she has researched, identified and catalogued hundreds of Italian paintings. Over the years she has developed instrumental relationships with international museums, collectors, dealers and academics. She is well-known in particular for her rediscovery in 2003 of Annibale Carracci’s ‘Montalto Madonna’, a painting which had been presumed lost for generations. The Gallery acquired it the following year and it now hangs in Room 37.
Letizia’s main area of interest and expertise is Italian baroque painting, in particular the works of the ‘Caravaggeschi’.
Q&A
Richard Stemp, Lecturer, National Gallery
Richard Stemp studied Natural Sciences and History of Art at the University of Cambridge before going on to complete a PhD on Sculpture in Ferrara in the 15th Century. After a year at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts, he shares his time between acting and art history. He has worked as a freelance lecturer at the National Gallery for over two decades, and also works for most of the major art museums in London, notably Tate Modern, Tate Britain, the Wallace Collection and Buckingham Palace. He has taught across Europe with Art history Abroad and has written several books, including The Secret Language of the Renaissance, and a follow-up on Churches and Cathedrals, as well as writing and presenting two television series for Channel 4 Education, Art in the National Gallery and Tate Modern.
