This beautiful, oversized book features the work of women artists from the Renaissance to today. The full-page illustrations bring to light these artists' achievements, including historical and cultural notes to place their works in perspective. Margaret Barlow's informative and well-researched text highlights the lives and accomplishments of well-known and lesser known women whose art has been influential to the larger society, despite restricted access to formal training, and in the face of societal pressures to conform to prescribed virtues of "womanhood," overcame impediments to pursue successful careers in art through the ages--Judith Leyster, Elisabeth-Louise Vigee-Lebrun, Angelica Kauffmann, Emily Mary Osborn, Lilly Martin Spencer, Mary Cassatt, Camille Claudel, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Georgia O'Keeffe, Kathe Kollwitz, Frida Kahlo, Dorothea Tanning, and Judy Chicago, are some of the artists highlighted.