A View of One’s Own: Landscapes by British Women Artists 1760-1860
28 January – 20 May 2026
The Courtauld Gallery presents a new exhibition of landscape drawings and watercolours by women artists working in Britain between 1760 and 1860, shedding light on a new side of the Golden Age of British Landscape art.
When the Royal Academy was founded in 1768, its members included two women, yet there would not be another female academician until Dame Laura Knight was elected in 1936. Despite this institutional exclusion, women artists in Britain continued to train, practice, and exhibit during this period, particularly in the field of landscape watercolours.
The exhibition features 10 remarkable women artists who have remained mostly unknown and their works largely unpublished. They include Harriet Lister and Lady Mary Lowther, who were among the first to depict the Lake District; Amelia Long, Lady Farnborough, one of the first British artists to travel to France following the Napoleonic Wars; and Elizabeth Batty – whose works appearing in the show were only rediscovered a few years ago.
The twenty-four works on paper on display include recent acquisitions and promised gifts and form part of a project to extend and diversify the collection of British watercolours.
The display takes on special resonance at the Courtauld Gallery in Somerset House, once the eighteenth-century home of the Royal Academy of Arts, where several of the featured artists including Amelia Long, Lady Farnborough, and Harriet Lister exhibited work.
A View of One’s Own: Landscapes by British Women Artists 1760-1860 is curated by Dr Rachel Sloan, Associate Curator for Works on Paper, and is accompanied by a new catalogue with contributions by Dr Susan Owens and Dr Paris Spies-Gans.
Entry to this exhibition is included with Gallery Entry.
A View of One’s Own: Landscapes by British Women Artists 1760-1860
28 January – 20 May 2026
Gilbert & Ildiko Butler Drawings Gallery, Floor 1
Hero image: Fanny Blake (1804–1879), A Rainbow over Patterdale Churchyard, Cumbria, 1849, watercolour and opaque watercolour over graphite, with scratching out, on wove paper. Private collection. Promised gift to the Samuel Courtauld Trust. Photo © Courtauld.