Tennants Auctioneers of North Yorkshire have collaborated with some of the leading Public Collections in the North to present a virtual exhibition celebrating female artists from the 18th century to the 21st century, which is available on their website for all to view.

The 21st century has seen society radically reassess truths that were once held as sacrosanct, with ideas around race, gender, sexuality and economics all being evaluated anew. In the sometimes rather reactionary world of art criticism and connoisseurship, one thing that has been looked at with new eyes is the female artist. For years ignored, misattributed and misunderstood, female artists are now being put centre stage; a major exhibition at the National Gallery dedicated to Artemisia Gentileschi is now open online, and another celebrating Angelica Kauffmann was planned for Summer 2020 by the Royal Academy but was sadly cancelled.

The virtual exhibition held by Tennants celebrates the extraordinary skill and imagination of female artists and demonstrates that despite many obstacles, women are just as capable of aesthetic greatness as their male counterparts. 

Director and auctioneer Jane Tennants says: ‘During this difficult time when public galleries have had to shut their doors, we are delighted to be able to collaborate with some of the great collections in the North to celebrate incredible works of art made by female artists’.

Alongside images kindly loaned by The Bowes Museum, Museums Sheffield, York Museums Trust, The Hepworth Wakefield and Harrogate Museums are a host of paintings, sculpture and prints that have been handled by Tennants Auctioneers, and the virtual exhibition offers a chance to see rare works by female artists that are now in private collections.

The exhibition is available to view, free of charge, at www.tennants.co.uk. (See the virtual catalogue at bottom of the exhibition page.)