Brilliant Women: 18th-Century Bluestockings
National Portrait Gallery, until 15 June
It’s refreshing to discover from a new and beautifully judged exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery that there was a time when women were in charge — successful, assertive, and at ease with their sexuality. Brilliant Women celebrates the Bluestocking women of the early 18th century, who spurned the customary role of gentlewomen as mere decorative adornment and took on the mantle of learning. Women like Elizabeth Carter, who in 1737, aged just 19, travelled up to London from Kent to embark on a career as a journalist, writing poetry in Latin and Greek (journalism was a rather different trade in those days) and assisting Edward Cave with the production of his new monthly digest, the Gentleman’s Magazine.
Carter was an extraordinary woman, choosing independence and scholarly endeavour over marriage.
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