0:00:02 > 0:00:05My search to uncover female creativity,
0:00:05 > 0:00:06and what stood in the way of it,
0:00:06 > 0:00:10began 500 years ago in Renaissance Italy,
0:00:10 > 0:00:15where our modern idea of Western art and the artist was born.
0:00:15 > 0:00:18And that artist was male.
0:00:18 > 0:00:23The ideal Italian woman hardly ever left her house, even to shop.
0:00:23 > 0:00:26So I marvelled at the resourcefulness
0:00:26 > 0:00:30and bloody-minded nerve of those women who had outflanked
0:00:30 > 0:00:33convention to make a lasting mark with their art.
0:00:33 > 0:00:39I think that's the biggest painting by a female artist I've ever seen.
0:00:41 > 0:00:46By the 18th century, it was Britain that led the world in wealth,
0:00:46 > 0:00:48industry and innovation.
0:00:48 > 0:00:53Despite being classed as artistic inferiors, exceptional women
0:00:53 > 0:00:55grasped the moment to create art
0:00:55 > 0:00:58and not just in traditional forms,
0:00:58 > 0:01:03realising their imagination in entirely novel ways.
0:01:03 > 0:01:06The 18th century was an era of dynamic,
0:01:06 > 0:01:09technological and economic change,
0:01:09 > 0:01:12presenting a galaxy of fresh opportunities
0:01:12 > 0:01:14for canny women to seize.
0:01:16 > 0:01:19Like the woman who became the first female sculptor in Britain,
0:01:19 > 0:01:22commissioned by the great and the good.
0:01:22 > 0:01:24Or the designer whose work revitalised
0:01:24 > 0:01:29the British silk industry and featured on dresses across the world.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32Or the history painter collected on these walls
0:01:32 > 0:01:35who took her art on to the breakfast tables of Britain.
0:01:37 > 0:01:38While in France,
0:01:38 > 0:01:42the other great economic power of the 18th century, two women -
0:01:42 > 0:01:48a portrait painter and a fashion designer - glamorised a queen,
0:01:48 > 0:01:52immortalising the image of Europe's most glittering court.
0:01:54 > 0:01:58Female ingenuity built, decorated, wove
0:01:58 > 0:02:02and clothed this shiny new world.
0:02:02 > 0:02:06And this is the story of how they did it.
0:02:18 > 0:02:19At first glance, though,
0:02:19 > 0:02:25the female contribution to the image of Georgian Britain seems slight.
0:02:25 > 0:02:27The architecture and art of this period
0:02:27 > 0:02:30looked like a monument to the talents of men.
0:02:33 > 0:02:38Palatial houses, designed and decorated by architect Robert Adam,
0:02:38 > 0:02:41walls gleaming with the oils of Joshua Reynolds
0:02:41 > 0:02:44and Thomas Gainsborough, define the age.
0:02:46 > 0:02:51But what I see is a landscape shaped and styled by women,
0:02:51 > 0:02:54and blanketed with their work.
0:02:54 > 0:02:58From tapestry and embroidery to watercolours and miniatures,
0:02:58 > 0:03:02to entire interiors, a world in themselves.
0:03:05 > 0:03:08But this was art behind closed doors,
0:03:08 > 0:03:09amateur art,
0:03:09 > 0:03:13a word just coming into use to mean someone who practised for love,
0:03:13 > 0:03:15not payment.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18But amateurish was not the put-down it is today.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25In this grand setting in rural Wales,
0:03:25 > 0:03:29a body of amateur work, made here at Erddig Hall,
0:03:29 > 0:03:34reveals just how imaginative 18th century women could be.
0:03:36 > 0:03:40This is one of the most surprising objects
0:03:40 > 0:03:43I've ever seen created by a female amateur.
0:03:43 > 0:03:47It's literally fantastic.
0:03:47 > 0:03:50It's a Chinese pagoda.
0:03:50 > 0:03:55It's based on a fantasy idea of the East,
0:03:55 > 0:04:00part of chinoiserie, which was very fashionable in the 1760s and 1770s.
0:04:01 > 0:04:05It's made of wood on velum,
0:04:05 > 0:04:08which is a kind of treated calfskin,
0:04:08 > 0:04:13and then it's encrusted with mica, which is a ground-up mineral
0:04:13 > 0:04:18and with mother-of-pearl and little bits of coloured glass.
0:04:20 > 0:04:24But in these shivering Chinese bells,
0:04:24 > 0:04:29I think we can still feel the imagination of the artist.
0:04:31 > 0:04:35This mix of manual dexterity, architectural knowledge
0:04:35 > 0:04:40and wild fantasy would be remarkable in any provincial amateur,
0:04:40 > 0:04:41male or female.
0:04:43 > 0:04:47But even more surprisingly, the maker wasn't mistress of this house,
0:04:47 > 0:04:49or even an accomplished daughter...
0:04:49 > 0:04:53she was one of the servants.
0:04:53 > 0:04:55She was christened Elizabeth Ratcliffe
0:04:55 > 0:04:58but known to the family as Betty the Little.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01She dedicated her life to the Yorkes,
0:05:01 > 0:05:07working for them in London and here at Erddig for over 30 years.
0:05:07 > 0:05:09But Betty was no ordinary servant.
0:05:13 > 0:05:16Betty Ratcliffe was hired by the mistress of the house,
0:05:16 > 0:05:21Dorothy Yorke, and trained up to be a governess and lady's maid.
0:05:21 > 0:05:25But remarkably, alongside her tutorial and menial duties,
0:05:25 > 0:05:29and for 18th century servants these where demanding,
0:05:29 > 0:05:33Ratcliffe developed an aptitude for art and craft.
0:05:38 > 0:05:42Doubtless, she inherited her eye for detail from her clockmaker father.
0:05:44 > 0:05:46Such sublime arty craftiness
0:05:46 > 0:05:50could have been seen as an absurd affectation in a servant,
0:05:50 > 0:05:53but for the interest of the young squire,
0:05:53 > 0:05:54Philip Yorke.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00So, Betty was painfully aware that she owed her opportunity
0:06:00 > 0:06:02to her master's indulgence,
0:06:02 > 0:06:06as this deferential letter to him demonstrates.
0:06:06 > 0:06:09"Chester, July 12th 1770.
0:06:09 > 0:06:14"Honoured Sir, I yesterday received the honour of your letter
0:06:14 > 0:06:17"and will, to the utmost of my power,
0:06:17 > 0:06:21"endeavour to execute what you're pleased to request,
0:06:21 > 0:06:22"instead of command."
0:06:23 > 0:06:28He's commissioning her to produce these models and pictures
0:06:28 > 0:06:30and pieces of needlework.
0:06:30 > 0:06:32And in fact, we know from other letters
0:06:32 > 0:06:36that she fulfilled other commissions for his friends.
0:06:36 > 0:06:40So, he seems to have fostered her artistic endeavour
0:06:40 > 0:06:42and been very proud of her.
0:06:46 > 0:06:49And Erddig is still proud of Betty's achievements.
0:06:49 > 0:06:52Delicate paper cuts and artful silk flowers
0:06:52 > 0:06:55show off feminine accomplishment.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58But there's another model that demonstrates
0:06:58 > 0:07:02the less conventional side of Betty's artistic ambition.
0:07:02 > 0:07:09This is a model of the ruins of the Temple of the Sun at Palmyra,
0:07:09 > 0:07:11which is in Syria.
0:07:11 > 0:07:15It's one of those many sites of excavations and ruins
0:07:15 > 0:07:18that were being rediscovered in the 18th century,
0:07:18 > 0:07:22setting off a new wave of neoclassicism.
0:07:22 > 0:07:26Her version, though, is rather feminised and romanticised,
0:07:26 > 0:07:32because it's dripping, these ruins, with creepers and plants.
0:07:32 > 0:07:36So, it's as if it's glimpsed in a romantic dream.
0:07:36 > 0:07:39It has a touch of the fairy tale about it.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43The family must have been exceedingly proud of it
0:07:43 > 0:07:44and of her talents,
0:07:44 > 0:07:48because they commissioned a special cabinet
0:07:48 > 0:07:51from a London cabinet-maker to show it off.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56Why did Betty craft a Syrian temple?
0:07:57 > 0:08:01The answer lies in the renewed fashion for all things classical,
0:08:01 > 0:08:04which swept Europe from the 1760s onwards,
0:08:04 > 0:08:08influencing everything from architecture to wallpaper design.
0:08:10 > 0:08:14I'd lay money that Betty had seen the architectural plates
0:08:14 > 0:08:16in a bestselling book about the ruins of Palmyra.
0:08:20 > 0:08:23So, the very latest breakthroughs in aesthetics
0:08:23 > 0:08:29had percolated down from the lofty realms of the male cultural elite
0:08:29 > 0:08:30to a servant.
0:08:32 > 0:08:35But surely this would rankle with everyone else in the house?
0:08:35 > 0:08:39A servant making temples? Has the world turned upside down?
0:08:41 > 0:08:47Well, we get some sense from a rather irritated letter
0:08:47 > 0:08:48from his mother, Dorothy, who,
0:08:48 > 0:08:52after all, is tasked with running the household.
0:08:52 > 0:08:56This is in June 1768.
0:08:56 > 0:08:58"Betty the Little is at work for you,
0:08:58 > 0:09:03"but pray, my dear, do not employ her in that way again
0:09:03 > 0:09:08"for one year, at least. All her improvements sink in drawing
0:09:08 > 0:09:11"and then I shall never have service from her
0:09:11 > 0:09:14"and make too fine a lady of her,
0:09:14 > 0:09:17"for so much is said on that occasion that it rather puffs up."
0:09:20 > 0:09:25I'm struck by the extraordinary scope of Elizabeth Ratcliffe's visual imagination.
0:09:25 > 0:09:30Amateurism was no disengaged, old-fashioned backwater,
0:09:30 > 0:09:35it was at the very cutting edge of the tastes and preoccupations of the age.
0:09:38 > 0:09:41Female handicrafts are ancient.
0:09:41 > 0:09:46The Bible urged women to use their needles to beautify the home.
0:09:46 > 0:09:50But the 18th century was the first time manufacturers
0:09:50 > 0:09:55and retailers spotted a fertile market for the taking.
0:09:55 > 0:10:00And just like today, with a neat box of water-colours or a craft kit,
0:10:00 > 0:10:04almost anyone with time and spare cash could have a go.
0:10:06 > 0:10:09I've always been fascinated
0:10:09 > 0:10:14by this weird and wonderful set of interlocking boxes,
0:10:14 > 0:10:18which have been kept in the store here at the Museum of London.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21It's probably from the 1790s,
0:10:21 > 0:10:25it's a bit of a tardis of femininity.
0:10:25 > 0:10:32On the top here, a really exquisite piece of embroidery in chenille
0:10:32 > 0:10:36and then you go down through the layers of the box.
0:10:36 > 0:10:40This layer is celebrating feather work.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43What women do is take the feathers off one bird,
0:10:43 > 0:10:49and reapply them to create images of others.
0:10:49 > 0:10:51And then into the next box,
0:10:51 > 0:10:55this lot have been stuck with artificial ivy leaves.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58In the corners, we have this sort of chiffon work
0:10:58 > 0:11:02and then, the final box.
0:11:02 > 0:11:06Here, this is cut spangles,
0:11:06 > 0:11:08which can be bought in leaves
0:11:08 > 0:11:10and then you cut it out for yourself
0:11:10 > 0:11:12and make your pattern and then sew it on.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15And then sequin spangles,
0:11:15 > 0:11:18rather like sequins you might still buy today.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22Cumulatively, I'm amazed by the testimony
0:11:22 > 0:11:28these shrimp pink boxes once gave to the diversity,
0:11:28 > 0:11:32the fertility and the ingenuity of female crafts.
0:11:34 > 0:11:38However, public opinion considered a woman's arts and crafts
0:11:38 > 0:11:42to be for private viewing, by friends and family only.
0:11:42 > 0:11:46They were certainly not to be seen by the general public
0:11:46 > 0:11:47or sold for money.
0:11:47 > 0:11:52The world of professional art was still clearly male.
0:11:54 > 0:11:58And that's what made the opening of the Royal Academy of Arts
0:11:58 > 0:12:03in London in 1768 such an apparent step forward for women.
0:12:03 > 0:12:06For the first time, the full range of female creativity
0:12:06 > 0:12:09was to be displayed and celebrated.
0:12:11 > 0:12:16The academy had three goals - to put on shows of contemporary art,
0:12:16 > 0:12:20to protect the professional interests of its members,
0:12:20 > 0:12:23and thirdly, to offer training.
0:12:23 > 0:12:27Perhaps the moment for female artists had finally come.
0:12:30 > 0:12:32But in the stalls of the academy
0:12:32 > 0:12:36is this famous engraving of its founders.
0:12:36 > 0:12:39The male members gathered for a life-drawing class
0:12:39 > 0:12:42still look to me just like a Boys' Own club.
0:12:42 > 0:12:4632 men, two women.
0:12:46 > 0:12:48The two founding female members,
0:12:48 > 0:12:51Mary Moser and Angelica Kauffmann...
0:12:51 > 0:12:54They're only here as portraits,
0:12:54 > 0:12:57not people, sidelined.
0:12:57 > 0:13:02The engraving epitomises ambivalent attitudes
0:13:02 > 0:13:05to female artists in the period.
0:13:05 > 0:13:09Able to work but denied equality,
0:13:09 > 0:13:13subject to a different and altogether more demanding set of rules.
0:13:15 > 0:13:19Initially, the academy made an open call for art to show
0:13:19 > 0:13:21at its annual exhibitions.
0:13:21 > 0:13:24And that did include women's crafts.
0:13:24 > 0:13:26But within just one year,
0:13:26 > 0:13:30the type of art that women practised to perfection,
0:13:30 > 0:13:34posed a threat to the prestige of the fledgling institution.
0:13:36 > 0:13:42I've got here the minutes of the members of the academy
0:13:42 > 0:13:45for the 9th of April, 1770.
0:13:45 > 0:13:49There's clearly been some internal argy-bargy.
0:13:49 > 0:13:54"Resolved that no needle-work, artificial flowers, cut paper,
0:13:54 > 0:13:57"shell-work, or any such baubles,
0:13:57 > 0:14:01"shall be admitted into the exhibition."
0:14:04 > 0:14:07What the Royal Academy is doing there, in 1770,
0:14:07 > 0:14:13is institutionalising the boundary between professional and amateur,
0:14:13 > 0:14:19drawing a sharp line between the largely male world of painting,
0:14:19 > 0:14:21sculpture and architecture
0:14:21 > 0:14:27and the overwhelmingly female world of applied art and craft.
0:14:31 > 0:14:35The Royal Academy's ruling was not a perverse exception.
0:14:35 > 0:14:39They were re-enforcing age-old prejudices.
0:14:39 > 0:14:40In the hierarchy of art,
0:14:40 > 0:14:45sculpture and paintings depicting epic events were at the top...
0:14:45 > 0:14:47needlework, at the very bottom.
0:14:48 > 0:14:53And philosophers like Rousseau knew which category
0:14:53 > 0:14:55women should confine themselves to.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58"At no cost would I want them to learn landscape,
0:14:58 > 0:15:00"even less the human figure.
0:15:00 > 0:15:06"Foliage, fruits, flowers and drapery is all they need to know
0:15:06 > 0:15:08"to create their own embroidery pattern."
0:15:11 > 0:15:15So what of the only two female artist members?
0:15:16 > 0:15:18They where thriving.
0:15:19 > 0:15:21One, flower painter Mary Moser,
0:15:21 > 0:15:24had become a favourite of the Queen,
0:15:24 > 0:15:29provoking envy in the men when she won a lucrative commission
0:15:29 > 0:15:32to paint a garden room in the royal villa.
0:15:34 > 0:15:38The other, who would have an even greater impact, was a Swiss artist,
0:15:38 > 0:15:42already celebrated across Europe and now living in London.
0:15:42 > 0:15:46Renowned for her talent, sweetness and charm,
0:15:46 > 0:15:49her name was Angelica Kauffmann.
0:15:49 > 0:15:51Kauffmann was so well-known
0:15:51 > 0:15:55that she was seen to lend a bit of cachet and glamour
0:15:55 > 0:15:57to the new Royal Academy
0:15:57 > 0:16:02and was even asked to paint four ceiling decorations
0:16:02 > 0:16:05for the Royal Academy council chamber,
0:16:05 > 0:16:08now here in the entrance hall,
0:16:08 > 0:16:13depicting invention, composition, colour and design.
0:16:16 > 0:16:19Kauffmann scrimped to establish her studio,
0:16:19 > 0:16:21here in Golden Square in London,
0:16:21 > 0:16:26in sufficient style to attract the posh for their portraits.
0:16:27 > 0:16:31When she was asked by England's premier artist, Sir Joshua Reynolds,
0:16:31 > 0:16:36to paint his portrait, her reputation seemed assured.
0:16:36 > 0:16:41But the very fact of her success attracted malicious whispers.
0:16:41 > 0:16:44Virtually every artist she associated with
0:16:44 > 0:16:46was rumoured to be in love with her,
0:16:46 > 0:16:51including the eminent Sir Joshua, fuelling the suspicion
0:16:51 > 0:16:56that Angelica owed her career more to flirtation than to talent.
0:16:58 > 0:17:02Given her prodigious celebrity, though, it's easy to overlook
0:17:02 > 0:17:06the sheer scale of the challenge she faced.
0:17:06 > 0:17:11To be truly acclaimed a great, she had to master history painting,
0:17:11 > 0:17:13the most prestigious genre.
0:17:14 > 0:17:18But here, she confronted her toughest obstacle.
0:17:27 > 0:17:32History painting was the most highly rated art in 18th-century Europe.
0:17:32 > 0:17:37That's a classical, biblical or historical scene on a broad canvas.
0:17:37 > 0:17:41It was supposed to be founded on philosophical understanding
0:17:41 > 0:17:47and abstract thought - things women were believed incapable of.
0:17:47 > 0:17:50As a French critic scoffed,
0:17:50 > 0:17:55"Women's lively imaginations are like mirrors that reflect all
0:17:55 > 0:17:58"and create nothing."
0:17:59 > 0:18:02To achieve her ambition,
0:18:02 > 0:18:05Kauffmann not only had to overcome such prejudice,
0:18:05 > 0:18:09she had to find a way out of a catch-22.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13History paintings were packed with full-length figures
0:18:13 > 0:18:17in dynamic poses, often scantily clad.
0:18:19 > 0:18:24A convincing attempt required detailed knowledge of human anatomy,
0:18:24 > 0:18:27the training of which was something the Royal Academy
0:18:27 > 0:18:30had been specifically set up to provide,
0:18:30 > 0:18:33even offering lectures from surgeons.
0:18:33 > 0:18:37This painting shows the leading anatomist, William Hunter,
0:18:37 > 0:18:38lecturing artists.
0:18:38 > 0:18:40They are all male.
0:18:42 > 0:18:45Propriety barred women from the life-drawing class.
0:18:45 > 0:18:48No 18th-century lady could do what I'm doing -
0:18:48 > 0:18:53gazing at this naked man, never mind drawing him.
0:18:53 > 0:18:55What was Kauffmann to do?
0:18:55 > 0:18:58Her sketch book shows how she tackled
0:18:58 > 0:19:01her modest ignorance of the male body.
0:19:04 > 0:19:08This is some sort of Roman or Greek hero in his sandals
0:19:08 > 0:19:12and with a bit of a cape over his arm,
0:19:12 > 0:19:14his muscles are sharply delineated.
0:19:14 > 0:19:19He has, you know, the impressive pecs and also this muscle here
0:19:19 > 0:19:22that footballers like to show off in underwear adverts...
0:19:24 > 0:19:29..but what's missing is the very thing that defines manhood.
0:19:30 > 0:19:35He's completely smooth in the loins, rather like Barbie's Ken.
0:19:36 > 0:19:40And, in a nutshell, this demonstrates the problem
0:19:40 > 0:19:42that Angelica Kauffmann faces.
0:19:42 > 0:19:48If she can show that she understands the male body,
0:19:48 > 0:19:50a male genitalia,
0:19:50 > 0:19:53and has been caught copying it,
0:19:53 > 0:19:56then her reputation would be blown,
0:19:56 > 0:19:58smashed to smithereens.
0:19:58 > 0:19:59But on the other hand,
0:19:59 > 0:20:05without detailed, exact knowledge of the male body in movement,
0:20:05 > 0:20:09she would never, ever become a great history painter.
0:20:09 > 0:20:12She's damned if she did
0:20:12 > 0:20:14and damned if she didn't.
0:20:19 > 0:20:23Kauffmann was not prepared to risk her reputation
0:20:23 > 0:20:27and restricted herself to sketching sculptures,
0:20:27 > 0:20:30a poor second to flesh and blood bodies.
0:20:30 > 0:20:34But ingeniously, she managed to make a virtue of that necessity.
0:20:39 > 0:20:41Saltram House, in Devon,
0:20:41 > 0:20:44has a unique collection of history paintings,
0:20:44 > 0:20:47which hold the key to how Kauffmann tried to overcome
0:20:47 > 0:20:49the obstacle of anatomy.
0:20:53 > 0:20:56I'm standing in front of a wall of Kauffmann's history paintings.
0:20:57 > 0:21:04Here, we have Penelope Taking Down The Bow Of Ulysses.
0:21:04 > 0:21:09And this painting epitomises one of her favourite strategies, which is
0:21:09 > 0:21:15focusing on the female heroines of classical and British myth.
0:21:16 > 0:21:20But when Kauffmann chose to depict men as men,
0:21:20 > 0:21:25she used, what is for me, one her most ingenious strategies.
0:21:25 > 0:21:29I'm sure most male painters would have chosen to present
0:21:29 > 0:21:35Hector out on the battlefield defending Troy.
0:21:35 > 0:21:37Instead, Kauffmann presents him
0:21:37 > 0:21:41saying farewell to the lovely Andromache,
0:21:41 > 0:21:44who's weeping, "Don't leave me,
0:21:44 > 0:21:48"don't make me a widow, don't make our son an orphan."
0:21:49 > 0:21:55Perhaps men wanted blood and guts in their history paintings, but ladies
0:21:55 > 0:21:57preferred something altogether softer
0:21:57 > 0:22:00and more sentimental for their homes.
0:22:02 > 0:22:06In this way, Kauffmann feminised the genre
0:22:06 > 0:22:09and changed art history in the process.
0:22:09 > 0:22:12But her reputation has suffered since
0:22:12 > 0:22:15because of the weakness of her anatomical knowledge,
0:22:15 > 0:22:18which the Royal Academy had not helped her rectify.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22And if painting in the grand manner was difficult,
0:22:22 > 0:22:26without training in life drawing, another art form, sculpture,
0:22:26 > 0:22:28would surely be impossible?
0:22:28 > 0:22:30Not quite.
0:22:30 > 0:22:35In 1784, a sculpture by a woman was accepted for exhibition
0:22:35 > 0:22:37by the Royal Academy.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40So how on earth did she manage it?
0:22:42 > 0:22:47Anne Seymour Damer was unconventional, self-reliant,
0:22:47 > 0:22:49cosmopolitan and privileged
0:22:49 > 0:22:52and she drew on all these advantages
0:22:52 > 0:22:55to take on the ultimate male preserve in art
0:22:55 > 0:22:59and emerge as the first female sculptor in Britain.
0:23:07 > 0:23:09The River Thames, near Henley,
0:23:09 > 0:23:14is the unlikely home to two of Anne Seymour Damer's public works,
0:23:14 > 0:23:17although getting a good look at them can be tricky.
0:23:31 > 0:23:34Damer carved the two keystones
0:23:34 > 0:23:37on either side of Henley Bridge in 1787.
0:23:37 > 0:23:40On this side, we've got the river god Thame.
0:23:40 > 0:23:44We can tell he's of the river because of the fishes in his beard
0:23:44 > 0:23:47and the bulrushes at his temple.
0:23:47 > 0:23:51On the other side, we have his female counterpart, Isis.
0:23:55 > 0:24:00They are easy to miss, but they represent the intriguing story
0:24:00 > 0:24:04of what a woman had to risk and withstand to leave her mark.
0:24:06 > 0:24:12From the first, fate dealt Anne an unusually promising hand.
0:24:12 > 0:24:16She was born into a powerful and enlightened family.
0:24:16 > 0:24:17Her father was a statesman,
0:24:17 > 0:24:22who employed the philosopher David Hume as his secretary.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26Her aristocratic mother befriended leading artists.
0:24:26 > 0:24:30As their only child, Anne was lavished with the kind of learned
0:24:30 > 0:24:34and worldly education normally reserved for men.
0:24:34 > 0:24:40But her unusual interest in sculpture was only ignited by chance.
0:24:40 > 0:24:41Out strolling with David Hume,
0:24:41 > 0:24:46they encountered an Italian boy carrying plaster model figures.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49Hume stopped to admire the boy's models,
0:24:49 > 0:24:52but Damer was sneeringly dismissive,
0:24:52 > 0:24:54to Hume's annoyance.
0:24:54 > 0:24:58He chided her, "I bet you can't produce anything better."
0:24:58 > 0:25:04Her pride was then piqued and she was determined to prove him wrong.
0:25:08 > 0:25:10Resenting the implication,
0:25:10 > 0:25:15she got hold of tools and a block of marble to demonstrate her skill.
0:25:17 > 0:25:21Her indulgent parents paid for tuition from practising sculptors
0:25:21 > 0:25:25and from an eminent surgeon and anatomist.
0:25:26 > 0:25:30Anne now had the very knowledge that the Royal Academy denied to women.
0:25:32 > 0:25:37But her career was barely off the ground before it was derailed
0:25:37 > 0:25:42by what can best be called an unfortunate marriage.
0:25:42 > 0:25:47Aged 17, Anne was married off to the son of a lord, John Damer.
0:25:47 > 0:25:49It was not a love match,
0:25:49 > 0:25:54and the lack of sympathy was confounded by his gross extravagance
0:25:54 > 0:25:56and massive gambling debts.
0:25:56 > 0:26:01After seven years, her patience ran out and she separated from him,
0:26:01 > 0:26:03inviting public censure.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06But far worse scandal was to come.
0:26:06 > 0:26:10Two years later, in 1776,
0:26:10 > 0:26:12in a pub near here in Covent Garden,
0:26:12 > 0:26:17after a long night's entertainment with four prostitutes
0:26:17 > 0:26:19and a blind fiddler,
0:26:19 > 0:26:21John Damer put a pistol to his head
0:26:21 > 0:26:23and shot himself.
0:26:29 > 0:26:32Rising from the ashes of scandal,
0:26:32 > 0:26:36it was in widowhood that Anne Damer's career began to take off.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39The style she adopted was neoclassicism,
0:26:39 > 0:26:42as befitted her avid study of Latin and Greek.
0:26:43 > 0:26:49This is a marble bust of the actress Elizabeth Farren
0:26:49 > 0:26:52in the guise of the muse of comedy
0:26:52 > 0:26:56and idyllic poetry, Thalia.
0:26:56 > 0:27:00So, she has a bit of classical drapery over her bosom
0:27:00 > 0:27:05and she's crowned with a wreath of ivy leaves.
0:27:05 > 0:27:10So, in many ways, this is quite a conventional bust.
0:27:10 > 0:27:14But remember, it's created by a woman
0:27:14 > 0:27:18and a formidably educated woman, at that.
0:27:18 > 0:27:22And Damer wants to make sure that point is remembered.
0:27:22 > 0:27:26So, she's chiselled on the side in Greek...
0:27:26 > 0:27:30"Anna Damer, of London, made me."
0:27:32 > 0:27:36What she's asserting here is that there's substance
0:27:36 > 0:27:39behind her classical style...
0:27:39 > 0:27:42that she's a thinker as well as a maker.
0:27:46 > 0:27:48The bust was praised,
0:27:48 > 0:27:52but Damer, going on to further works,
0:27:52 > 0:27:55was now encroaching on the territory of her male contemporaries.
0:27:55 > 0:27:59And they responded and not with any generosity.
0:28:00 > 0:28:03Gossip bubbled about her appearance.
0:28:03 > 0:28:06One painter, Joseph Farington,
0:28:06 > 0:28:10reported in his diary in 1798,
0:28:10 > 0:28:14"The singularities of Mrs Damer are remarkable.
0:28:14 > 0:28:17"She wears a man's hat and shoes
0:28:17 > 0:28:20"and a jacket also like a man's.
0:28:20 > 0:28:23"Thus, she walks about the fields with a hooking stick."
0:28:23 > 0:28:27He insinuated that her close friendships with women
0:28:27 > 0:28:28were Sapphic.
0:28:29 > 0:28:31Clare, what is this?
0:28:31 > 0:28:34So, this is a bust of Mary Berry,
0:28:34 > 0:28:37who was Anne Seymour Damer's great friend
0:28:37 > 0:28:40and a respected amateur writer in her own right.
0:28:40 > 0:28:43What's rather lovely about it, though, is that on the headband,
0:28:43 > 0:28:45she's inscribed their names,
0:28:45 > 0:28:48Maria Berry and Anne Seymour Damer.
0:28:48 > 0:28:52They seem to have been soul mates together.
0:28:52 > 0:28:56They write incredibly charged letters to one another
0:28:56 > 0:28:59and they certainly seem to have seen each other
0:28:59 > 0:29:03as their main source of support and emotional comfort.
0:29:03 > 0:29:08Clearly, there was some passionate attachment between the two of them.
0:29:08 > 0:29:13Whether or not it's a sexual attachment, I suppose, who can know?
0:29:13 > 0:29:16That's the big question in the 18th century.
0:29:16 > 0:29:21And these rumours originally appear in the press in the 1770s,
0:29:21 > 0:29:25with scurrilous poems saying how fair Italia's maids
0:29:25 > 0:29:29have felt the pressure of her hand, the pressure of delight.
0:29:29 > 0:29:32So, they're quite full-on!
0:29:32 > 0:29:37But maybe these accusations about her sexuality are more to do with
0:29:37 > 0:29:41a deep cultural uncomfortableness with the idea
0:29:41 > 0:29:43of a professional woman sculptor.
0:29:45 > 0:29:50The scandal around Damer only grew when, in 1789,
0:29:50 > 0:29:55her skills put her in the firing line once again.
0:29:55 > 0:29:58She accepted a significant commission for the exterior
0:29:58 > 0:30:00of the Drury Lane theatre...
0:30:00 > 0:30:03a statue of the god Apollo.
0:30:03 > 0:30:06The male body in public and ten foot high.
0:30:08 > 0:30:10Her Apollo no longer exists
0:30:10 > 0:30:14but what remains is the scurrilous cartoon it provoked.
0:30:14 > 0:30:19Damer is depicted carving the naked bottom of her Apollo
0:30:19 > 0:30:23and wielding her mallet with emasculating force,
0:30:23 > 0:30:28while prudish classical figures look on, hiding their genitalia,
0:30:28 > 0:30:30worried for their own manhood.
0:30:30 > 0:30:33The cartoon was humiliating
0:30:33 > 0:30:35but Damer had fought too hard
0:30:35 > 0:30:38to be dissuaded by mockery.
0:30:38 > 0:30:41She went on to model national hero Admiral Nelson
0:30:41 > 0:30:44and even King George III himself.
0:30:44 > 0:30:48And the Royal Academy showcased 34 of her works
0:30:48 > 0:30:50over three decades.
0:30:53 > 0:30:57So Anne Damer stands as one of the few female artists
0:30:57 > 0:31:02whose work could actually be seen by the 18th-century general public.
0:31:04 > 0:31:07Another one was, of course, Angelica Kauffmann,
0:31:07 > 0:31:13who had already achieved her place on the male-dominated gallery walls,
0:31:13 > 0:31:16but had ambition that lay way beyond them.
0:31:16 > 0:31:20She had a shrewd understanding of the new technologies
0:31:20 > 0:31:25and the untapped markets for art they could open up.
0:31:25 > 0:31:27A good printmaker herself,
0:31:27 > 0:31:31Kauffmann saw the revolutionary power of reproduction.
0:31:31 > 0:31:36A single etching or engraving of her work could be printed off
0:31:36 > 0:31:41in the hundreds, seen in any print shop window on the high street.
0:31:41 > 0:31:47The marketplace for decorative art was also ripe for the taking.
0:31:47 > 0:31:49Angelica Kauffmann mass-produced in 3D.
0:31:52 > 0:31:54This decorated porcelain
0:31:54 > 0:31:59represents the very top end of her merchandising.
0:31:59 > 0:32:02These are German, from Meissen,
0:32:02 > 0:32:06and this is from Worcester, in England.
0:32:06 > 0:32:11Kauffmann struck all sorts of deals allowing her paintings
0:32:11 > 0:32:13to be reproduced in prints,
0:32:13 > 0:32:17but then transferred onto an array of objects,
0:32:17 > 0:32:21from teapots, cups and plates,
0:32:21 > 0:32:23to fans, to snuff boxes,
0:32:23 > 0:32:28to pieces of furniture, even to commodes.
0:32:28 > 0:32:35And in this way, Angelica's imagery reached down to the middle market.
0:32:35 > 0:32:38As one printer and engraver said of her,
0:32:38 > 0:32:40"The whole world is Angelica mad."
0:32:42 > 0:32:45Kauffmann's ease with industrial design
0:32:45 > 0:32:48took her art onto the breakfast tables
0:32:48 > 0:32:50of the polite and commercial classes
0:32:50 > 0:32:52and made her extremely rich.
0:32:59 > 0:33:04Manufacturing and trade drove art in new directions,
0:33:04 > 0:33:07industry offered fresh possibilities
0:33:07 > 0:33:10for women to take their art to the world.
0:33:13 > 0:33:15Textiles were the most vivid
0:33:15 > 0:33:19and ubiquitous source of colour in 18th-century Europe.
0:33:19 > 0:33:21Not everyone could wear patterned silks,
0:33:21 > 0:33:24but almost everyone had glimpsed them.
0:33:26 > 0:33:30While the wealthy bought embroidered silks in huge amounts
0:33:30 > 0:33:33for their grand homes and their wardrobes,
0:33:33 > 0:33:37in the industry itself, most women were relegated to the low-paid,
0:33:37 > 0:33:41low-status roles - spinning and winding.
0:33:41 > 0:33:45The weavers and designers were typically men,
0:33:45 > 0:33:47protected by their guilds.
0:33:48 > 0:33:52But then, a woman came along whose sheer talent
0:33:52 > 0:33:55overcame the prejudices of a male-dominated industry.
0:33:55 > 0:33:59She is one of the great unsung heroes of British design,
0:33:59 > 0:34:04and she lived and worked here, in Spitalfields in East London.
0:34:04 > 0:34:07Her name is Anna Maria Garthwaite.
0:34:07 > 0:34:10She defined the English style
0:34:10 > 0:34:14and clothed her world in cutting edge design
0:34:14 > 0:34:15and brilliant colour.
0:34:19 > 0:34:21Garthwaite's moment had come,
0:34:21 > 0:34:23because the British silk industry
0:34:23 > 0:34:27was being eclipsed by its great rival, France.
0:34:27 > 0:34:29The male weavers of Spitalfields
0:34:29 > 0:34:32had not found a way to compete convincingly.
0:34:34 > 0:34:37I've got here a mere selection
0:34:37 > 0:34:43of over 800 watercolour designs by Garthwaite.
0:34:44 > 0:34:48Being able to paint flowers in watercolours,
0:34:48 > 0:34:53this is a typical female, polite accomplishment in this period.
0:34:53 > 0:34:55But to be a designer,
0:34:55 > 0:35:00you have to understand how to lay out a design
0:35:00 > 0:35:02with mathematical accuracy.
0:35:02 > 0:35:09Here, she's laid her designs onto squared paper to aid the weaver.
0:35:10 > 0:35:15On top of that, she has to have an understanding
0:35:15 > 0:35:18of how a two-dimensional design, like this, is going to look
0:35:18 > 0:35:20in a very different material altogether.
0:35:20 > 0:35:23Just because something looks good as a watercolour,
0:35:23 > 0:35:27it does not follow that it'll look great in textiles.
0:35:27 > 0:35:33And there are messages on her designs for the weavers.
0:35:33 > 0:35:34This one...
0:35:36 > 0:35:41..has reminders of what the colours must be on the flowers.
0:35:41 > 0:35:47And this extraordinarily ripe, exotic design has instructions
0:35:47 > 0:35:51on the bottom, "The white in the flowers will be brocade."
0:35:53 > 0:35:56What's impressive to me about all of this,
0:35:56 > 0:36:00is evidence of the way that Garthwaite
0:36:00 > 0:36:04used a traditional female talent,
0:36:04 > 0:36:06watercolour painting of flowers,
0:36:06 > 0:36:10and translated it into an industrial product.
0:36:14 > 0:36:19Researching the history of female creativity has its challenges.
0:36:19 > 0:36:23In this case, there's a great legacy,
0:36:23 > 0:36:26but the woman herself is an enigma.
0:36:26 > 0:36:29The very few scraps of evidence about Garthwaite's childhood,
0:36:29 > 0:36:31a vicar's daughter in Lincolnshire,
0:36:31 > 0:36:35demonstrates some education in amateur art.
0:36:35 > 0:36:38Here's a papercut made when she was just 17.
0:36:38 > 0:36:43It reveals her flair for working precisely on a minute scale,
0:36:43 > 0:36:48sheer draftsmanship, as well as her keen eye for repeating pattern.
0:36:48 > 0:36:53When her father died, it seems that Garthwaite was left a small legacy,
0:36:53 > 0:36:57which she took along with her talent on a wing and a prayer to London.
0:36:58 > 0:37:00Here, Garthwaite set herself up
0:37:00 > 0:37:03in the heart of the silk weaving district, in the East End
0:37:03 > 0:37:07and got down to work, designing watercolour patterns
0:37:07 > 0:37:11for the weavers of Spitalfields, who used them to create
0:37:11 > 0:37:16some of the most desirable fabrics of the 1730s and '40s.
0:37:17 > 0:37:21I met with textile curator Clare Browne,
0:37:21 > 0:37:25to discover how Garthwaite became so prominent in a man's world.
0:37:27 > 0:37:31Clare, Garthwaite was commended for introducing
0:37:31 > 0:37:34the principles of painting into the loom.
0:37:34 > 0:37:39Is that just airy flattery or does it have some technical purchase?
0:37:39 > 0:37:43I think to some extent it reflects what a very fine artist she was.
0:37:43 > 0:37:47But it also may refer to, for example, a particular technique
0:37:47 > 0:37:50that she introduced from the French industry,
0:37:50 > 0:37:52a technique called point rentre.
0:37:52 > 0:37:56It was a way of feeding lighter and darker shades of colour into
0:37:56 > 0:38:01each other, so that you get a sense of a three-dimensional curved form.
0:38:01 > 0:38:05And it allows you to have a curve in a petal, or a piece of fruit.
0:38:05 > 0:38:10Do you think it was hard for her to break in to silk design?
0:38:10 > 0:38:12Curiously, some of her designs have the inscription,
0:38:12 > 0:38:15"Sent to London before I came down."
0:38:15 > 0:38:18And of course they wouldn't necessarily have needed to say
0:38:18 > 0:38:19they were by a woman.
0:38:19 > 0:38:22And so, a possibility is that these designs were shown to weavers
0:38:22 > 0:38:25or mercers, "Would you like more where this come from?"
0:38:25 > 0:38:28And then the weavers or mercers were hooked by this extraordinary
0:38:28 > 0:38:31talent and carried on patronising her, even though she was a woman.
0:38:31 > 0:38:34That's interesting. I hadn't thought about that,
0:38:34 > 0:38:36that a male agent might have acted for her.
0:38:36 > 0:38:39It's possible. It was a very male-dominated business.
0:38:39 > 0:38:41- The weavers' company was all about men.- Yes.
0:38:41 > 0:38:43It's rather fantastic, then, isn't it,
0:38:43 > 0:38:46that one of their most successful designers was a woman?
0:38:46 > 0:38:49It entirely, I think, reflects her extraordinary talent.
0:38:49 > 0:38:51They knew that they could be confident
0:38:51 > 0:38:54that she would produce designs they could sell
0:38:54 > 0:38:57to their most important customers and that's the crux of it.
0:39:00 > 0:39:01Garthwaite's designs
0:39:01 > 0:39:05were not only sported by the fashionable around town.
0:39:05 > 0:39:08Thanks to the British dominance of trade,
0:39:08 > 0:39:12her fabrics were in demand across Europe and even in America.
0:39:13 > 0:39:18Here, a Garthwaite silk is proudly worn by Mrs Charles Willing,
0:39:18 > 0:39:20a Philadelphia matron...
0:39:20 > 0:39:25a demonstration of how Garthwaite truly dressed the world.
0:39:33 > 0:39:39While Garthwaite was revitalising a key British industry,
0:39:39 > 0:39:43in Northern France, a young woman was growing up in obscurity.
0:39:43 > 0:39:48She would go on to use her imagination to revolutionise
0:39:48 > 0:39:51the defining industry of the French.
0:39:51 > 0:39:56Her story leads us to the most fabulous court of the 18th century -
0:39:56 > 0:40:00that of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.
0:40:00 > 0:40:02Her name was Rose Bertin.
0:40:03 > 0:40:07Now, you may not have heard of her, but she ingeniously built herself
0:40:07 > 0:40:11into the world's first celebrity fashion designer.
0:40:11 > 0:40:16If it wasn't for Bertin, Dior and Chanel would never have existed.
0:40:19 > 0:40:24And Paris might never have become the undisputed capital of fashion.
0:40:24 > 0:40:27Yet Bertin's start in life in no way suggested
0:40:27 > 0:40:31the glittering possibilities to come.
0:40:31 > 0:40:34Born into an artisan family in Picardy,
0:40:34 > 0:40:37at nine, Bertin was apprenticed to a dressmaker to learn
0:40:37 > 0:40:41the mysteries of a trade for centuries the preserve of men.
0:40:43 > 0:40:47In the late 17th century, bands of intrepid seamstresses
0:40:47 > 0:40:50broke the male monopoly on dressmaking,
0:40:50 > 0:40:53earning the right to cut and construct clothes
0:40:53 > 0:40:55for women and children,
0:40:55 > 0:40:59establishing their own all-female guilds.
0:40:59 > 0:41:02Within a century, the canniest had established themselves
0:41:02 > 0:41:06as flourishing businesswomen, not sweated labour,
0:41:06 > 0:41:10adept at predicting aesthetic change
0:41:10 > 0:41:13and able to capture the Zeitgeist in clothes.
0:41:15 > 0:41:18With women now having the right to dress women,
0:41:18 > 0:41:21Bertin followed her dream to Paris
0:41:21 > 0:41:27and, aged just 16, charmed her way into a chic fashion emporium.
0:41:27 > 0:41:29Her inventiveness in trimmings
0:41:29 > 0:41:33and her ability to attract noble patrons served her well.
0:41:33 > 0:41:38The female proprietor of the shop invited her into partnership.
0:41:38 > 0:41:39In 1770,
0:41:39 > 0:41:45Bertin got financial backing from an aristocratic client to go solo.
0:41:47 > 0:41:51Rose Bertin's shop was on the Rue Saint-Honore.
0:41:51 > 0:41:55She called it Le Grand Mogul after a famous diamond,
0:41:55 > 0:42:00a title that was glittering with exoticism and exclusivity.
0:42:00 > 0:42:04It was made, the exterior, of marble,
0:42:04 > 0:42:07faux marble in lemon and lavender.
0:42:07 > 0:42:10Inside, it was decorated with portraits
0:42:10 > 0:42:13of her royal clients from all across Europe.
0:42:16 > 0:42:21Bertin displayed literally hundreds of fully trimmed outfits.
0:42:21 > 0:42:24So what was her secret?
0:42:24 > 0:42:26I've come to meet designer Fanny Wilk,
0:42:26 > 0:42:30who specialises in recreating historical fashions,
0:42:30 > 0:42:35to find out just what it was that made Bertin such an innovator.
0:42:36 > 0:42:40Fanny, you've modelled for us two different kinds of looks.
0:42:40 > 0:42:43And I can see that this is a formal court dress
0:42:43 > 0:42:48and this is for more informal, I would think, afternoon wear.
0:42:48 > 0:42:52What did Rose Bertin do differently on a dress like this?
0:42:52 > 0:42:55What marked her out from her competitors?
0:42:57 > 0:43:01She finds new models, she finds new shapes,
0:43:01 > 0:43:04new materials, new colours,
0:43:04 > 0:43:08new matching between all the accessories and the hat...
0:43:08 > 0:43:14It was possible for her to work with dresses like empty canvas.
0:43:15 > 0:43:19She put a lot of jewels, trims, laces, feathers,
0:43:19 > 0:43:24a lot of things that make the dress much more beautiful.
0:43:24 > 0:43:29So, really, she is what we might think of as a stylist,
0:43:29 > 0:43:32in the Hollywood sense of a stylist.
0:43:32 > 0:43:35Not only dresses but the whole...
0:43:35 > 0:43:37Yeah, the tout ensemble.
0:43:37 > 0:43:42But Bertin's ambitions lay beyond just fashioning the nobility.
0:43:42 > 0:43:48This lowborn artisan had set her eyes on impressing a future queen.
0:43:48 > 0:43:51When the young Austrian princess, Marie Antoinette,
0:43:51 > 0:43:56arrived in France in 1770, she was accused of being dowdy.
0:43:56 > 0:44:00Bertin saw her chance and, through one of her aristocratic clients,
0:44:00 > 0:44:03secured an introduction.
0:44:03 > 0:44:07From that moment, a new collaboration was born.
0:44:07 > 0:44:10Marie Antoinette's dowdy days were behind her.
0:44:10 > 0:44:14Fashion and history were set on a new and momentous course.
0:44:17 > 0:44:22Shortly after they met, Marie Antoinette invited Rose Bertin
0:44:22 > 0:44:28behind the scenes to her own private apartments, and so it was here,
0:44:28 > 0:44:30not in the grand formal bedroom,
0:44:30 > 0:44:36that they had their biweekly meetings to design her entire look
0:44:36 > 0:44:38and to perform the fittings.
0:44:44 > 0:44:48Out of those meetings came the unforgettable image
0:44:48 > 0:44:49we all know today.
0:44:49 > 0:44:53Bertin dressed Marie Antoinette for her husband's coronation.
0:44:53 > 0:44:56Not in the traditional ceremonial garb,
0:44:56 > 0:44:59but in the contemporary galant style,
0:44:59 > 0:45:03covered in whimsical embroidery and sparkling with sapphires.
0:45:04 > 0:45:07But it was the towering Bertin pouf,
0:45:07 > 0:45:11a raised coiffure quite literally built with scaffolding,
0:45:11 > 0:45:15pads and pomade, which truly inflated the Queen's stature,
0:45:15 > 0:45:17adding three feet to her height.
0:45:17 > 0:45:21A courtier remarked, "To be the most a la mode woman alive,
0:45:21 > 0:45:24"seemed to Marie Antoinette the most desirable thing."
0:45:26 > 0:45:29The young Queen had become a walking art installation
0:45:29 > 0:45:32and the architect of all this, Rose Bertin,
0:45:32 > 0:45:36demanded full recognition for her genius.
0:45:36 > 0:45:41Challenged by a client's husband about the whopping size of her bill,
0:45:41 > 0:45:44Bertin reportedly brushed him off,
0:45:44 > 0:45:48comparing herself to a feted male painter,
0:45:48 > 0:45:51and querying whether he was only paid
0:45:51 > 0:45:55according to the size of his canvas and colours.
0:45:55 > 0:45:59If his fee was not based on the price of his materials,
0:45:59 > 0:46:01then why should hers be?
0:46:01 > 0:46:04Bertin had grasped something that women
0:46:04 > 0:46:08striving in a creative field had to learn -
0:46:08 > 0:46:12the importance of the right persona.
0:46:12 > 0:46:14Was she really that arrogant?
0:46:14 > 0:46:16We can never know.
0:46:16 > 0:46:20But clearly, she recognised the signal importance
0:46:20 > 0:46:24of projecting a memorable personality
0:46:24 > 0:46:26and titanic self-belief.
0:46:26 > 0:46:29The prototype of the demanding empress
0:46:29 > 0:46:32and diva of fashion was born here.
0:46:37 > 0:46:42But Bertin's creation also changed the course of economic history.
0:46:42 > 0:46:47What makes all this so important is the fact that Marie Antoinette
0:46:47 > 0:46:51disposed of her dresses at the end of every season
0:46:51 > 0:46:53and got a whole new set.
0:46:53 > 0:46:58So what that means is, something akin to the modern fashion cycle
0:46:58 > 0:46:59was whirring into life.
0:47:02 > 0:47:04Business boomed.
0:47:04 > 0:47:08Bertin's designs sped across Europe on the backs of dolls -
0:47:08 > 0:47:10or Pandoras, as they were known.
0:47:10 > 0:47:14They took prototypes of French fashion to every court,
0:47:14 > 0:47:15from Spain to Russia.
0:47:19 > 0:47:21Bertin's exuberant confections
0:47:21 > 0:47:25fed Marie Antoinette's reputation for extravagance.
0:47:25 > 0:47:27But in the end, it was a simple gown
0:47:27 > 0:47:31that would surprisingly draw the greatest uproar.
0:47:31 > 0:47:35In 1783, Bertin dressed the Queen
0:47:35 > 0:47:38in an informal muslin chemise.
0:47:38 > 0:47:42It was a sea change in fashion history.
0:47:42 > 0:47:47All over Europe, women abandoned their stiff, formal silk dresses
0:47:47 > 0:47:51in favour of lighter, less structured clothes
0:47:51 > 0:47:53made out of Indian cottons.
0:47:53 > 0:47:54But to the French public,
0:47:54 > 0:47:59it looked as if the Queen was displaying her underwear.
0:47:59 > 0:48:02It was an insult to France itself.
0:48:02 > 0:48:06The silk industry was up in arms at the betrayal.
0:48:10 > 0:48:14It's at this point that telling Bertin's story
0:48:14 > 0:48:17brings me face to face with another female artist
0:48:17 > 0:48:19who stamped her style on Europe,
0:48:19 > 0:48:22thanks to the patronage of Marie Antoinette.
0:48:22 > 0:48:25Her name is Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun.
0:48:29 > 0:48:32Bertin may have dressed the Queen,
0:48:32 > 0:48:36but it was Lebrun who became the Queen's favourite portrait painter,
0:48:36 > 0:48:40displaying the monarch and her style to the world.
0:48:41 > 0:48:44Vigee-Lebrun was one of the greatest portrait painters
0:48:44 > 0:48:46of her generation.
0:48:46 > 0:48:48But for Joshua Reynolds,
0:48:48 > 0:48:52she was one of the greatest portrait painters of any generation,
0:48:52 > 0:48:54surpassing even van Dyck.
0:48:55 > 0:48:59This is just one of at least 30 paintings
0:48:59 > 0:49:02she completed of Marie Antoinette.
0:49:02 > 0:49:08And it's a beautiful symphony in colour, in grey and pink.
0:49:08 > 0:49:13It's also masterful in its depiction of texture,
0:49:13 > 0:49:16from the sheen on the grey silk,
0:49:16 > 0:49:18the airiness of the lace
0:49:18 > 0:49:21and the softness of those feathers.
0:49:21 > 0:49:23I feel you can touch them.
0:49:24 > 0:49:26But above all, what she's managed to do
0:49:26 > 0:49:30is transform a really rather plain queen
0:49:30 > 0:49:36into a vision of ravishing, radiant, enchanting prettiness.
0:49:39 > 0:49:43From the outset, Vigee-Lebrun had a number of advantages.
0:49:43 > 0:49:45She was born in Paris,
0:49:45 > 0:49:48the capital of power, taste and fashion.
0:49:48 > 0:49:50Her artist father mentored her
0:49:50 > 0:49:56and as a teenager she was already painting portraits and had a studio.
0:49:56 > 0:49:58In return, she supported the family.
0:50:00 > 0:50:05In 1776, aged 20, she wed an art dealer.
0:50:05 > 0:50:09She could copy his collection of Old Masters and, naturally,
0:50:09 > 0:50:14he shared his contacts with her, opening up a rich seam of clients.
0:50:14 > 0:50:18The wife benefitted from the husband's business,
0:50:18 > 0:50:22but the husband recognised a talented asset when he saw one.
0:50:24 > 0:50:29And one of her assets, she traded on mercilessly.
0:50:29 > 0:50:33"In those days, beauty was really an advantage,"
0:50:33 > 0:50:35she wrote in her memoirs.
0:50:35 > 0:50:39Over her career, she painted 37 self-portraits,
0:50:39 > 0:50:43convinced they were her most effective calling card.
0:50:43 > 0:50:47Vigee-Lebrun even credited this one with gaining her entry
0:50:47 > 0:50:50into the prestigious French Academy, aged 28.
0:50:51 > 0:50:54But she was far more than just a pretty face.
0:50:54 > 0:50:58She had an inspired ability to read the cultural Zeitgeist.
0:51:03 > 0:51:07In late 18th-century France, thanks to Enlightenment philosopher,
0:51:07 > 0:51:10Jean-Jacques Rousseau, good parenting was a hot topic.
0:51:14 > 0:51:15In the past,
0:51:15 > 0:51:19the rich had tended to outsource the raising of their children.
0:51:20 > 0:51:25But Rousseau insisted that women should not shirk their natural role.
0:51:31 > 0:51:33Vigee-Lebrun cleverly reflected
0:51:33 > 0:51:37and shaped these ideals in a sentimental style of portraiture
0:51:37 > 0:51:40and she started with herself
0:51:40 > 0:51:42and her daughter Julie.
0:51:44 > 0:51:49Madonna and child, tender, informal...
0:51:49 > 0:51:51but, for me, a bit too saccharine.
0:51:53 > 0:51:56She's responding here to Rousseau's call
0:51:56 > 0:52:01for a return to the maternal, the dutiful, and the natural
0:52:01 > 0:52:06but, rather brilliantly, she's taken the idea of nature
0:52:06 > 0:52:08and transformed it into fashion.
0:52:13 > 0:52:15But one maternal portrait
0:52:15 > 0:52:18challenged Vigee-Lebrun's skills to the maximum.
0:52:18 > 0:52:23In 1787, she accepted a daunting commission -
0:52:23 > 0:52:27to change the nation's perception of its monarchy.
0:52:27 > 0:52:28The task?
0:52:28 > 0:52:32To present Marie Antoinette not as a flamboyant queen,
0:52:32 > 0:52:34but as a compassionate mother.
0:52:34 > 0:52:38With the storm clouds of revolution gathering,
0:52:38 > 0:52:40this was fundamentally a political portrait.
0:52:41 > 0:52:44The aim of this huge painting
0:52:44 > 0:52:46is to save the Queen's reputation.
0:52:46 > 0:52:48So, the Queen, by this point,
0:52:48 > 0:52:55has already developed a reputation for ostentation, excess,
0:52:55 > 0:52:58and there's a lot of criticism of her finances, is there not?
0:52:58 > 0:53:00Yes. Absolutely.
0:53:00 > 0:53:03Because Marie Antoinette was so much hated,
0:53:03 > 0:53:07the intention here is to make her look simple and serious.
0:53:07 > 0:53:11This is why you have the jewel casket at the back,
0:53:11 > 0:53:15making a reference to a Roman episode.
0:53:15 > 0:53:18It's the story of Cornelia, Mother Of The Gracchi.
0:53:18 > 0:53:22When asked by a friend to show her jewels,
0:53:22 > 0:53:25Cornelia said that her only jewels were her children,
0:53:25 > 0:53:28and she presented her children,
0:53:28 > 0:53:31which is exactly what Marie Antoinette is doing here.
0:53:31 > 0:53:35She's putting forward her children, her three children.
0:53:35 > 0:53:38But I think what's also interesting is that it shows that Vigee-Lebrun
0:53:38 > 0:53:42can fulfil a very complicated brief.
0:53:42 > 0:53:46She really thought about the message that the painting should convey.
0:53:50 > 0:53:53But given the bankruptcy of royal finances,
0:53:53 > 0:53:55it would take more than a portrait,
0:53:55 > 0:53:57however brilliantly executed,
0:53:57 > 0:54:01to rescue the reputation of the French Queen,
0:54:01 > 0:54:05or for that matter, the two artists who helped create it.
0:54:06 > 0:54:09Critics saw these women
0:54:09 > 0:54:15as feeding the Queen's taste for ostentatious luxury,
0:54:15 > 0:54:19flaunting exquisite excess while the state went bankrupt.
0:54:20 > 0:54:26When Revolution erupted in 1789, the mob attacked Versailles
0:54:26 > 0:54:30and their immediate target showed just how much the people hated
0:54:30 > 0:54:32Rose Bertin.
0:54:32 > 0:54:35The tapestries and the paintings went untouched.
0:54:35 > 0:54:39Instead, the mob went straight to Marie Antoinette's wardrobe
0:54:39 > 0:54:44and tore Bertin's fairy-tale creations to shreds.
0:54:44 > 0:54:46Bertin tried to ride out the storm,
0:54:46 > 0:54:49presenting herself as a citoyenne,
0:54:49 > 0:54:52gamely selling revolutionary cockades.
0:54:53 > 0:54:56But her brand was toxic now.
0:54:56 > 0:55:01She was too closely associated with the frills of the Ancien Regime.
0:55:01 > 0:55:06Business suffered and in 1792, she decamped to London.
0:55:07 > 0:55:09Before she fled, however,
0:55:09 > 0:55:12she did one last service for her royal client.
0:55:12 > 0:55:14In the wake of the King's execution,
0:55:14 > 0:55:18she sent Marie Antoinette a mourning outfit.
0:55:18 > 0:55:22She wore it day and night for months until her own execution,
0:55:22 > 0:55:26by which time it hung on her body in tatters.
0:55:32 > 0:55:36Bertin opened a modest shop in London,
0:55:36 > 0:55:39hoping to recover her debts, but it came to nothing.
0:55:39 > 0:55:42Her moment had passed.
0:55:42 > 0:55:44Yet her legacy lives on.
0:55:44 > 0:55:49She had established Paris as the capital of haute couture
0:55:49 > 0:55:52and not even revolutionaries could take that away.
0:55:54 > 0:55:56For Vigee-Lebrun, however,
0:55:56 > 0:56:00the outcome of the Revolution was very different.
0:56:00 > 0:56:04Bold and ambitious still, she fled Paris for Italy,
0:56:04 > 0:56:07achieving a level of international success
0:56:07 > 0:56:10in the courts of Italy and Russia,
0:56:10 > 0:56:13matched by few men and no other women of the period.
0:56:16 > 0:56:20Here in Florence, in the famous Vasari Corridor,
0:56:20 > 0:56:24lined with self-portraits by the great artists of Europe,
0:56:24 > 0:56:27she is one of only a handful of women
0:56:27 > 0:56:29permitted to stake their claim to posterity.
0:56:32 > 0:56:36The unrepentant Vigee-Lebrun,
0:56:36 > 0:56:38still painting away.
0:56:39 > 0:56:42Still with that impossible prettiness
0:56:42 > 0:56:46which masks her grim, gritty determination.
0:56:46 > 0:56:50And here she is painting Marie Antoinette.
0:56:50 > 0:56:54She still allied herself with the Ancien Regime,
0:56:54 > 0:56:56and with the woman that made her.
0:57:00 > 0:57:02There is a contradiction here.
0:57:02 > 0:57:06Marie Antoinette is the ultimate symbol of elitism,
0:57:06 > 0:57:10yet she was also an enabler of female talent,
0:57:10 > 0:57:12in sharp contrast to what was to come.
0:57:14 > 0:57:18While one might have thought a revolution with a credo of liberty,
0:57:18 > 0:57:22equality and fraternity would have helped creative women,
0:57:22 > 0:57:23that wasn't to be.
0:57:23 > 0:57:27The old academy, open to exceptional women,
0:57:27 > 0:57:30was replaced by the Institute of France,
0:57:30 > 0:57:33that barred women artists altogether.
0:57:33 > 0:57:36It is one of the great ironies that the Ancien Regime
0:57:36 > 0:57:41was actually more receptive to female creativity than the Republic.
0:57:41 > 0:57:46Because revolutionaries, despite their egalitarian rhetoric,
0:57:46 > 0:57:50are often invincibly sexist.
0:57:50 > 0:57:51The story of women and art
0:57:51 > 0:57:55is no simple onward march to formal recognition.
0:57:55 > 0:57:58There were setbacks as well as breakthroughs.
0:58:03 > 0:58:07Back in England, after Mary Moser and Angelica Kauffmann,
0:58:07 > 0:58:10the Royal Academy defaulted to the boys' club
0:58:10 > 0:58:12it had always wanted to be.
0:58:12 > 0:58:17It would elect no more female members for another hundred years.
0:58:19 > 0:58:22But in that century, female artists would emerge
0:58:22 > 0:58:26who didn't need the sanction of an art establishment.
0:58:26 > 0:58:30In my next programme, women strike out on unique paths
0:58:30 > 0:58:36to redefine our idea of art and the role it can play in our lives.