The female gaze

Some like Anjolie Ela Menon question slotting artists into male and female

Women artists, like chefs, have been few and far on the ground till recent decades. In fact, it was only a century ago that the earliest woman painter began to sign her name to her work, having learned to paint in the wash style from her brother, Abanindranath Tagore. Sunayani Devi was a mostly hobby painter, sitting amidst her paints and brushes in the large and airy kitchen of the household, something she began in her 30s, but few outside the rarefied world of art have heard about her, or seen her work.

It was her contemporary, the feisty and glamorous