Provincial women painters, forgotten painters. Women artists in Alicante in the first third of the XXth century (1894-1931)

Abstract

In the last decade research has revealed the need to study women artists in Spain throughout the centuries. These studies focus on cultural centers where the presence of women artists was more numerous than in provincial areas. However, there were also women painters in smaller cities, who found the same or greater difficulties than women who worked in the centers of artistic production. In this paper, we present five examples of women painters who worked in Alicante (Spain), who lived disparate situations and were finally forgotten. We also propose the study of contemporary newspapers as a tool that allows us to approach the knowledge about the position of the society concerning women artists and to understand the reasons why these female painters did not achieve fame.