Brilliant Women: 18th Century Bluestockings
National Portrait Gallery, London

THE term “bluestocking” has become something of a pejorative name for intellectual women: not a mega put down, but one suggesting someone serious and worthy – and dull. Yet, the origins of the term, which lies in the 18th century, was applied to women who were thoughtful, questioning and anything but dull.

Members of the informal women’s literary “club” that flourished in the second half of 18th century in London were dubbed bluestockings after one of the associates – Benjamin Stillingfleet – wore blue worsted stockings as he was too poor to afford the customary black silk stockings thought appropriate for evening wear. The group attracted educated, intellectual, conservative women who rejected traditional female accomplishments such as card-playing and frivolous behaviour, preferring to question current moral, intellectual and cultural standards of their time. They took it in turns to host evening events that were attended by leading literary figures.

Women were often the majority of the guests and the subject of the evening was often a respected woman from the past or the present. To all intents and purposes, they invented a new type of informal sociability and nurtured a sense of intellectual community among writers, artists and thinkers who attended their “conversation parties”.

Rather than compose tracts on the failings of men, they urged women to become involved in philanthropic activities that benefited other women. Following their own advice, they set up a number of philanthropic institutions with the aim of helping women. These were often poor widows with children who were able to become economically self-sufficient. They also tried to take care of one another. Elizabeth Carter (1716-1806) received £100 a year annuity from Elizabeth Montagu after her husband, Edward Carter, died.

The women – young and old, professional, educated, intellectual and upper-middle-class, married as well as single – provided a mixture of role models for succeeding generations. Members included several pairs of close female friends who either did or may have had romantic friendships. Frances Burney, the first English woman to write a best-seller, was a member of the group and part of her success can be attributed to the favourable publicity she received from the group.

Through a mix of portraits, drawings, satires and personal artefacts, this exhibition looks at the culture, impact and identity of the group which formed new and challenging links between gender, learning and virtue. Portraits of the artist Angelica Kauffman (1741-1807), historian Catharine Macaulay (1731-91) and early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-97), reveal how women used portraiture to advance their work and reputations in a period which begins with the Enlightenment and ends with the onset of the French Revolution.

From portraits by distinguished artists such as Romney, Vigée-LeBrun and Robert Adam, the exhibition evokes a sense of the sophistication of the bluestockings and the lives they led. Fuller and more helpful captions on the characters portrayed would help to bring them to life, but Brilliant Women is a reminder that feminism has a long and fascinating history.

Emmanuel Cooper

Brilliant Women continues until June 15