The mid-19th and 20th centuries saw a significant increase in women acting as arbiters of taste and shapers of the built environment. The emerging groups of female designers and female patrons were enabled by new norms for women.
The essays in this volume address these developments, posing the important question: did, and do, women produce art and architecture that reflect a feminine perspective? How did women, otherwise invisible and denied attention in the public sphere, gain voice? The writers look at these questions through both the political frame of gender as well as through family lineage and dynastic connections, and their importance in women’s patronage of the arts.
Published by Zubaan.
D. Fairchild Ruggles is Professor at the University of Illinois, holding appointments to Landscape Architecture, Art History, Architecture, Gender & Women’s Studies, and the Center for South Asia and Middle East Studies.