A growing collection of stories about remarkable women in art and culture

Writing my book The HeArt of Paris introduced me to many remarkable women whose lives had been overlooked, simplified or almost forgotten by history. As I learnt about them, I felt inspired to paint them.

But something unexpected happened. Painting these women made me want to return to their stories and discover more. Who were they beyond the familiar portraits, famous names and descriptions written about them by other people?

That curiosity became Thursday Women, my weekly Substack series. Every Thursday, I look more closely at the life of one remarkable woman, including the artists, writers, performers, models, filmmakers, rebels and pioneers connected with my paintings and books.

We have spent an extraordinary amount of time looking at women's bodies and not nearly enough time listening to their stories.

1. 

Overlooked women

An introduction to the women who appeared in history's paintings, studios and cultural circles, but whose own stories were often pushed into the background. This is where my wish to look beyond the familiar names and recover the women themselves began.

Read the complete story on Substack

2. 

The painting that started it all

Every creative journey has a beginning. In this story, I return to the painting that first encouraged me to look directly at the women behind my art and ask what they might still have to tell us.

Read the complete story on Substack

3.  

George Sand: the first Thursday Woman

George Sand refused to live within the narrow limits imposed on nineteenth-century women. She adopted a male pen name, wore men's clothing when it suited her and became one of France's most successful and controversial writers.

Read the complete story on Substack

4. 

Why did art history forget Victorine Meurent?

Victorine Meurent is remembered as the woman in several famous paintings by Édouard Manet. But she was not merely his model. She was an artist in her own right whose paintings were accepted by the Paris Salon, sometimes when Manet's own work was rejected.

Read the complete story on Substack

5. 

Mère Rosalie: the woman who fed the artists

Mère Rosalie ran a modest restaurant in Montparnasse where struggling artists could eat even when they had little money. She fed them, accepted paintings when they could not pay and became part of the artistic history of Paris.

Read the complete story on Substack

6. 

Mata Hari: she created a mystery and became one

Mata Hari transformed herself from Margaretha Zelle, a Dutch girl with an unhappy past, into one of Europe's most famous performers. Her life became tangled in love, war, espionage and myth, but the woman behind the legend was far more complicated than the notorious spy history remembers.

Read the complete story on Substack

7. 

Agostina Segatori: the woman behind Le Tambourin

Agostina Segatori was an Italian model, businesswoman and owner of Café du Tambourin in Paris. She is often remembered as Vincent van Gogh's lover, but her café created a meeting place for artists and gave Van Gogh one of his earliest opportunities to exhibit his work in Paris.

Read the complete story on Substack

8. 

Marie van Goethem: the girl who didn't disappear

Marie van Goethem is known as the young ballet student who modelled for Edgar Degas's Little Dancer Aged Fourteen. Her story has often been told as though she simply disappeared, but fragments of surviving evidence reveal a real girl shaped by poverty, work, family and the unforgiving world of the Paris Opera.

Read the complete story on Substack

9. 

Musidora: the vamp who preserved cinema

Musidora became legendary as the mysterious Irma Vep in Les Vampires. But behind the famous black silhouette was an actress, writer, filmmaker and producer who later helped preserve the history of early cinema itself.

Read the complete story on Substack

The collection continues

Every Thursday I introduce another remarkable woman whose story deserves to be remembered. Visit my Substack to read the newest story and subscribe for future Thursday Women.

Visit Thursday Women on Substack