Main content

New Thinking : Muses and women's creativity

Ahead of International Women's Day, Naomi Paxton is joined by a Tate curator, authors and researchers exploring the tangled relationships between writers, artists and their muses.

Iseult Gonne is the daughter of the Irish suffragette, actress and republican who became a muse for WB Yeats. Novelist Helen Cullen has been researching her troubled life. Rochelle Rowe's research looks at women of colour who modelled for artists including Jacob Epstein and Dante Gabriel Rosetti, tracing the histories of women like Fanny Eaton and Sunita Devi. Tabitha Barber is curating an exhibition of women's art opening at Tate Britain in May. Naomi Paxton hosts a conversation about muses, women making art and carving out a public name for themselves.

Producer : Julian Siddle

Victorian Radicals: From the Pre-Raphaelites to the Arts and Crafts Movement runs at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery until 31 October.

From16 May, Tate Britain opens Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520 - 1920.

Angelica Kauffman runs at the Royal Academy (1 March - 30 June 2024).

You can see a portrait of Fanny Eaton by Frederick Sandys in the Royal Academy exhibition Entangled Pasts 1768-now (on until 28 April 2024)
Julia Margaret Cameron runs at the National Portrait Gallery (21 March - 16 June).

You can find a collection of episodes exploring Women in the World on the Free Thinking programme website.

Available now

44 minutes

Broadcast

  • Wed 6 Mar 2024 22:00

Featured in...

The Arts & Ideas Podcast

The Arts & Ideas Podcast

You can download all the past episodes of Radio 3's Free Thinking

Discussions and talks from the Free Thinking Festival 2019

Discussions and talks from the Free Thinking Festival 2019

Angry politics, what we can鈥檛 say, being diplomatic, weeping, emotion in music, film & TV

Click to listen to discussions, talks and music as the Free Thinking Festival 2019 Gets Emotional

Click to listen to discussions, talks and music as the Free Thinking Festival 2019 Gets Emotional

Angry politics, what we can鈥檛 say, being diplomatic, weeping, emotion in music, film & TV

CLICK to LISTEN & SEE programmes from the Free Thinking Festival 2018: The One & the Many

CLICK to LISTEN & SEE programmes from the Free Thinking Festival 2018: The One & the Many

We examine the fast-changing relationship between the individual & the crowd

CLICK to LISTEN & SEE all programmes, images, clips & features from 2017's festival

Free Thinking Festival 2017: The Speed of Life