What a Woman Can Do! Artemisia Gentileschi and the Struggle for Success with Professor Christopher Marshall

Art has long been viewed as a calling—a quasi-religious vocation that drives artists to seek answers to humanity’s deepest questions. Yet the art world is a risky, competitive business that requires artists to make strategic decisions, especially if the artist is a woman. In this lecture Christopher Marshall offers a new account of the life, work, and legacy of this globally renowned Italian Baroque painter, revealing the degree to which Gentileschi’s remarkable success as a painter was due not only to her enormous talent but also to her ability to respond creatively to the continuously evolving trends and challenges of the Italian Baroque art world. He will track the ups and downs of her long and successful four-decade career operating in a male-dominated field—and show how her business acumen has even influenced the resurrection of her reputation today, when she has been transformed from a footnote of art history to a globally famous artist and feminist icon.

Christopher R. Marshall is Professor of Art History and Curatorship at the University of Melbourne. His publications include Artemisia Gentileschi and the Business of Art (Princeton University Press, 2024); Baroque Naples and the Industry of Painting (Yale University Press, 2016); and chapter contributions to The Economic Lives of Seventeenth Century Italian Painters (Yale University Press, 2010) and Mapping Markets in Europe and the New World (Brepols, 2006). His museums and curatorship publications include Sculpture and the Museum (Routledge/Ashgate, 2011) and contributions to Museum Making; Making Art History and Reshaping Museum Space (Routledge: 2005, 2007, 2012).

Christopher Marshall’s research distinctions include two years support from the Australian Research Council, the Paul Mellon Visiting Senior Fellowship (Centre for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC), a Senior Research Fellowship at the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, a Research Fellowship at the Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan, and Visiting Senior Lecturing Fellowships at the Hubei Institute of Fine Arts, Wuhan, and the Department of Art and Art History, Duke University, Durham NC. His curatorial projects include the 2025 co-curated University of Melbourne exhibition, Illuminating Minds: Margaret Manion and the Making of Art History, and an exhibition on the paintings of Artemisia Gentileschi to be held at The Nivaagaard Collection, Copenhagen, in 2028.

 Your ticket includes tea or Market Lane coffee served before the presentation, and time to browse our exclusive range of books, gifts, and homewares at TJC Emporium.

This event is presented on-site at The Johnston Collection. Please see your ticket for details. NOTE: Tickets for this event do not include access to our house museum, Fairhall. Guided tours of the current exhibition can be booked separately.

This event is supported by The Colin Holden Charitable Trust.

Image: Artemisia Gentileschi, Self-Portrait as St Catherine of Alexandria, c.1615-17. The National Gallery, London.