4 New Books on Women in the Arts and Sciences

Liberty Equality Fashion: Three Revolutionary Icons Who Styled Freedom for Women

Three women who “decapitate[d] aristocratic style” in revolutionary France take center stage in this impressive account from Barnard art history professor Higonnet (Berthe Morisot). Tracing how from 1789 to 1804 these “three graces” (so-called at the time for their stylishness) eschewed restrictive, elaborate garments in favor of simple, straight, unstructured dresses, Higonnet contends that this style shift was a bold expression of revolutionary freedom. The most well-known “grace,” Marie Joséphine Rose Tascher de La Pagerie (later Joséphine Bonaparte, wife of Napoleon), drew fashion inspiration from women of color in Martinique, where she grew up, and broke “barriers in women’s clothing history” that were “five hundred years old” by wearing one-piece dresses in lieu of the two-piece combo of skirt and bodice. Also profiled are Térézia Tallien, who used the seductive power of clothing to ensnare powerful men and finagle for herself “unprecedented celebrity” and power in the Directory era (she was a key architect behind the overthrow of Robespierre), and Juliette Récamier, who “trademarked absolute whiteness” as a symbol of virginity after a marriage to her rumored biological father made it necessary for her to prove they weren’t actually sleeping together. As rigorous as it is fun, Higonnet’s narrative takes many insightful detours, from close readings of the era’s paintings to an overview of how colonial trade transformed France’s economy. It’s a captivating case study of fashion’s provocative role in politics. (Apr.)

Portrait of a Woman: Art, Rivalry, and Revolution in the Life of Adélaïde Labille-Guiard

Art historian Quinn (Broad Strokes) presents a deliciously inventive biography of Adélaïde Labille-Guiard (1749–1803), an overlooked portraitist for the family of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette who “never wrote her memoirs, or... personal letters to loved ones” yet revealed plenty in her paintings, pastels, and drawings. Quinn depicts her subject’s childhood in mid-1700s pre-revolutionary Paris, and the creative education she gleaned informally as a shopkeeper’s daughter who lived close to the Louvre and learned from some of its artists. Pushed by financial necessity to find work, she discovered a passion in teaching and became a “mother of art” who “nourishe[d] the next generation” of female artists, as exemplified by her 1785 Self-Portrait with Two Pupils, Marie-Gabrielle Capet and Marie-Marguerite Carreaux de Rosemond, the first European painting of a female artist with her students. Yet Labille-Guiard remained locked in competition with Marie-Antoinette’s “favorite painter,” Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, to whom she was often compared during her lifetime and whose legacy has overshadowed her own. Portraying key moments from her subject’s life in vivid scenes and colorful dialogue, Quinn breathes life into her cast of characters and the anxious times in which they lived, before “the Revolution began burning shit down.” This excellent work of art history deserves a wide readership. Illus. (Apr.)

The Secret Mind of Bertha Pappenheim: The Woman Who Invented Freud’s Talking Cure

Brownstein (The Open Heart Club), an English professor at St. John’s University, takes a fresh and fascinating look at the life of Freud’s “Anna O” and the illness that ailed her. In 1880s Vienna, Bertha Pappenheim (1859–1936) was stricken by a mysterious collection of symptoms (roving paralysis, aphasia, headaches, etc.) broadly defined as “hysteria.” She sought treatment from Freud’s mentor Josef Breuer, and together patient and doctor fashioned a curative method in which Pappenheim recounted “repressed memories,” which seemed to alleviate some of her symptoms. Cited by Freud in his and Breuer’s 1895 treatise Studies on Hysteria, the “Anna O” case serves in many ways as “the founding myth... of the theory and practice of psychoanalysis,” Brownstein writes. Yet the claim that Pappenheim was “cured” is false, according to the author, who notes that Freud and Breuer corresponded in the following years about her continued mental suffering and suggests she later eschewed psychoanalysis. Brownstein theorizes that Pappenheim’s symptoms may have stemmed from functional neurologic disorder, and includes case histories of present-day sufferers to contextualize the condition. Infused with emotion from Brownstein’s own personal losses (he wrote the book while grieving the deaths of his wife and father, the latter of whom had begun the research into Pappenheim), the result is a riveting look at the boundaries between neurology and psychology and the gender dynamics of medicine. This captivates. Agent: David McCormick, McCormick Literary. (Apr.)

Unrooted: Botany, Motherhood, and the Fight to Save an Old Science

Evolutionary botanist Zimmerman discusses her passion for plants and inveighs against sexism in the sciences in her marvelous debut memoir. Zimmerman grew up in southwestern Ontario, where she spent much of her childhood exploring “open spaces full of green in every direction.” Her lifelong fascination with the natural world led her to a PhD in molecular plant systematics and research on rare plant species in South America. Zimmerman writes rapturously of her work (focusing closely on a specific specimen “felt spiritual, like time spent in quiet worship before a vast and intricate cosmos”) and argues that botany, despite its waning popularity, is crucial in combating the effects of climate change because it aims to understand and catalog changes in biodiversity. She also writes of the hostility she faced from superiors when she became pregnant, which drove her to abandon her research career for one in science reporting and medical ghostwriting. Intriguingly, she compares the “impoverishment of genetic potential” that results from plant extinction to the exodus of new mothers like her from the sciences. Throughout, Zimmerman’s enthusiasm and expertise make the science accessible even to those without a background in the subject. The results are as edifying as they are galvanizing. Illus. Agent: Jessica Papin, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (Apr.)