| This dissertation on the life and career of Alejandrina Gessler y Lacroix (1831-1907) presents the first qualitative analysis of a Spanish woman artist. Like many other European artists of this era, Gessler Lacroix was of mixed heritage. The first chapter of my dissertation considers the question of identity both nationally and professionally as she moved outside of Spain to develop her career, yet returned to her homeland as she sought to leave behind a legacy. She trained in Paris at Charles Chaplin's atelier alongside Mary Cassatt and Eva Gonzales. As a result of this training, she exhibited at the Paris Salon almost annually from 1865 to 1885. She painted several large scale ceiling panels in Parisian hotels and Madrid's Ateneo and received multiple commissions for churches and private homes. She traveled to North Africa to produce several Orientalist works and painted and exhibited the female nude in both France and Spain. She was one of the first women to be accepted into Madrid's Real Academia de San Fernando and Cadiz's Academia de Bellas Artes. Her expansive oeuvre in addition to her written works in a journal and her book, Recuerdos de Cadiz y Puerto Real, illustrate her substantial artistic and literary contributions. Therefore, it becomes even more surprising that she has not been addressed in an academic study. Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 investigate Gessler Lacroix's participation in the following genres: copies, Orientalism, large scale decorative projects, the female nude, the Ateneo ceiling project, and religious painting. These genres are interpreted by exploring the socio-historical and biographical circumstances guiding her artistic production, her exhibition practices in both France and Spain, and the resulting criticisms. Gessler Lacroix's substantial oeuvre and significant textual records distinguish her from other nineteenth-century women painters; yet, her choice in subject matter, travels, and ambiguous national identity identify her as the prototypical European artist. |
