An Academic facing the Women's art: José Francés and his artistic yearbook (1915-1926)

Abstract

The art critic and member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, José Frances, also known as “Silvio Lago”, wrote for 11 consecutive years The Artistic Year, an annual summary of the Spanish artistic events between 1915 and 1926, which came to be declared of public utility in 1924 and translated into several languages. In this almost encyclopedic work, the critic named 175 female active artists in Spain during the period indicated, but only wrote critical essays about 14 of them. This article aims to give to know the names of these artists, to reveal the reasons that favoured their public projection and to characterize the tone of José Francés’ criticism in the context of the controversy of the genres and the irruption of the female professional artist in Spain.