Harriet Backer’s Evening Interior 1890 is in the Clark exhibition, it’s normally in Oslo (she was Norwegian).

Bertha Morisot’s The Sisters (1869), a portrait of the artist and her sister Edna, was probably painted shortly after Edna married and left the family home. Their matching dresses reflects their intimacy and  the solemn expressions mourn its passing.

‘The exhibition sparks exultation and regret. It trumpets the dozens of female artists who beat preposterous odds to study and work in Paris. It also mourns all the talents that were unrecognised or belittled by rotten teachers, antagonistic husbands and an unsympathetic society.’ Nicely put by Ariella Budick in the FT. She adds: ‘I found myself overwhelmed by the pervasive sense of suppressed gifts and squandered potential. Most women had to choose between vocation and family, but in the end their decisions hardly mattered: eventually their art disappeared into footnotes and long-term storage.’ Even better put! This is Louise-Catherine Breslau Les Amies 1881. What a fascinating painting! There is a useful blog here about it.

Oh to be in Massachusetts now that is August’s here! There is an exhibition at The Clark in Williamstown we long to go to called  Women Artists in Paris 1850-1900. Details here. We start the week with Marie Bashkirtseff In the Studio 1881: ‘Women pursued art education by attending private academies where they produced a wide array of work, exhibited independently and formed their own organisations such as the influential Union des Femmes Peintres et Sculpteurs established the year of this painting, 1881.

Detail of ‘It is the Lord’ window, designed by Joseph Ledger, made by Lowndes & Drury, 1952. St John the Evangelist, St Leonard’s-on-Sea. Jane Brocket’s book has made all of us in the office look at stained glass in a quite new way. As she says: ‘It doesn’t require a lot to enjoy and appreciate stained glass: a pair of eyes is all you need to get started.’ But this wonderfully researched book makes it so  much easier for those who up to now have not looked, much. For stained glass is indeed ‘one of the world’s most fascinating but understated arts, fabulous examples of which pop up everywhere from remote villages to huge cities, from residential suburbs to busy town centres.’ As with everything she does, Jane Brocket looks at stained glass ‘in a new and different way.’ Her book is wonderful value: it is £13, like a Persephone book, and we can send it.

Detail of memorial window, by G E R Smith, 1950. Parish Church of All Saints with St Peter, Maldon. More details about G E R Smith and his work here.

Detail of angel with peacock-feather wings in tracery, maker unknown, fifteenth century. St John the Baptist, Cirencester