Chinese Women Artists and Works on Paper by Women at the Ashmolean

Please join us for a May day out in Oxford as an ideal way to take advantage of exclusive, expert guided tours of two of the Ashmolean’s current exhibitions.
After a self-hosted lunch at the Ashmolean’s roof-top dining room, we will start our visit at 13:00 with an exceptional chance to tour From Palace to Studio: Chinese Women Artists 1900 to the Present, led by Shelagh Vaniker, Associate Professor of Chinese Art at St Hugh’s college and the Ashmolean’s Chinese Art curator.   The exhibit opens in the 20th century and the work of a “ghost painter”– a woman tasked by the retainers of China’s Empress Dowager Cixi, to produce paintings in the Empress’s name.  Shelagh will lead us through the exhibition which documents the emergence of female painters in modernizing China as independent artists with their own incomes, ateliers and international reputations.
At 14:00, we will meet Dr. Caroline Palmer, whose doctoral research focused on the role of women as connoisseurs and art critics in 18th and 19th century Britain, and who has a keen interest in works by women artists in the Ashmolean’s Prints and Drawings Collection. Dr. Palmer will introduce us to works by Berthe Morisot, Rosa Bonheur, Elisabeth Siddal, Maggi Hambling, among others. We will also see photographs by Margaret Cameron, and wood engravings by Clare Leighton, among others.
Suggested trains leave London/Paddington Station at 10:30 or 10:50, and return from Oxford at 15:31. The suggested schedule takes advantage of off-peak fares, but has limited availability and requires you to book soon.
Cost: Patrons- £10; Friends-£15; Guests £25.  RSVP to rsvp@UKFriendsofNMWA.org and post cheque to Box 539, 28 Old Brompton Road, SW7 3SS.