The Girl Who Inspired Picasso and Matisse

Making note of who we neglect to mention

So often, our collective history is told through the work + actions of men. And we are told that this is because there simply weren’t women doing those things at that time — often because we weren’t allowed to.

For a long time, I believed this.

I trusted that the lack of representation of women (and other disenfranchised groups) was due to a lack of production, activity, participation on their part. We can’t show what doesn’t exist, right?

Yet the more I learn about history, the more I learn that actually, there were women doing very important work + taking influential action. We’re simply just left out of our documentation and education about it.

So it exists. It’s just not deemed worthy of inclusion — by who? And why? Well, we know what they say about those who write history books… (they’re written by the “victors”; only their opinions and values are included).

Here’s an example I just stumbled across — a young, female artist who influenced Picasso and Matisse.

They are two of the most famous and well-known artists, men whose work we encounter over and over again, their names splashed across billboards and broadcast around the world.

Yet somehow, this artist, who produced work so immediately iconic that it was displayed in Paris, and who worked with Picasso, Matisse, and Breton, is totally…