WOMEN IN THE PICTURE BOOK TALK 3

Fri 27 Nov 2026, 11am-12pm

This talk is in-person in the Headley Lecture Theatre and online via Zoom.

Tickets are £10. Booking is essential.

Book tickets below

With Catherine McCormack, author, independent academic & critic

This is the third of four talks with the author Catherine McCormack inspired by her celebrated book, 'Women in the Picture: Women, Art and the Power of Looking'. Taking our Aphrodite exhibition as a starting point, McCormack will look at how the goddess of love has shaped and continues to shape definitions of female identity.

In this third talk, the author examines how images of idealised motherhood in the figure of the Virgin Mary have continuously conditioned expectations for women who mother, and the domestic expectations that have shaped their position in society.

A drawing by Raphael of a mother kneeling and tenderly embracing her young standing child, in chalks

A mother embracing a child, Raphael, c. 1513

A 14th-century painting of the Virgin and Child with gold frame by artist Ceccarelli

The Virgin and Child, Naddo Ceccarelli, c. 1347

A colourful painting of a mother holding a child sat on the sandy dunes of a beach

Dorelia and child seated on the Dunes, Augustus Edward John, c. 1909-1912

Other Women in the Picture talks take a similar approach in opening up three more cultural archetypes of female identity that are rooted in art history but resonate far beyond into gender politics both past and present.

About the author

Women in the Picture book cover by Catherine McCormack

Catherine McCormack is an author, academic, critic and independent curator interested in feminism and visual culture. She has taught at University College London, University of Oxford, Sotheby's Instititute of Art, and Chelsea College of Art and curated exhibitions and programming on Matrescence and motherhood, and Radical Joy. She is the author of 'Women in the Picture: Women, Art and the Power of Looking', and 'Defiant Women: 50 Artists and Their Activism' as well as numerous international museum exhibition catalogues. She is currently co-editing an academic volume on contemporary art, feminism and spirituality and is a regular critic, contributing to the New World newspaper, Now Voyager magazine, Texte zur Kunst, and BBC Radio 4 Front Row.

Part of the Museum's Love and Legacy season of events.

BOOKING

This event takes place onsite in the Headley Lecture Theatre and online via Zoom

Tickets are £10 each

BOOK YOUR IN-PERSON TICKET BOOK YOUR ONLINE TICKET

If you have any questions, please email us at publicprogrammes@ashmus.ox.ac.uk