Editor's Note: Elizabeth Thompson and the Case of the Vanishing Lady

Elizabeth Thompson, Calling the Roll After An Engagement, Crimea, 1874, Oil on canvas, 36.7 × 72.2 inches, Queen Victoria's Royal Collection

Readers,

I wanted to draw your attention to the first episode of Malcolm Gladwell's podcast Revisionist History, in which he looks at the career of painter Elizabeth Thompson as a way to think about tokenism, moral licensing, and being the first outsider to enter a closed world.

Thompson painted the masterpiece The Roll Call in 1874, and it was hung in a coveted position in the front gallery of the Royal Academy of Art - an honor unheard of for a female artist. At the time when paintings were equivalent to blockbuster Marvel movies, The Roll Call traveled the continent drawing hundreds of thousands of eyes. With that much popularity, she should have been a shoe-in for membership in the Academy. But she lost by two votes and her next masterpiece was hidden in the Academy's rafters. She then disappeared from the art world stage and it would be 60 years before a female member was elected. Gladwell's interpretation of why is worth a listen. Link HERE.

Your Editor,
Virginia