Chloë Ashby

Women artists have been ignored for far too long

Even the most revered art historians of the 20th century failed to mention a single one, but Katy Hessel now puts women artists firmly in the picture

‘Still Life with a Vase of Flowers, Goblets and Shells’, by Clara Peeters, 1612. [Alamy]
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  • The Story of Art Without Men

    Katy Hessel

    Hutchinson Heinemann, pp. 512, £30

At first glance, Clara Peeters’s ‘Still Life with a Vase of Flowers, Goblets and Shells’ (1612) appears to be just that. Carefully arranged on a wooden tabletop, the collected objects are in conversation, the nubby curves of the shells echoing the ribbed neck of the stone vase, their dusky and rosy hues matching the open and squeezed shut buds.

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