Artemisia Gentileschi

Judith Slaying Holofernes is by Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi, completed in 1612-13 and now in the Museo Capodimonte in Naples, Italy.

The scene is inspired by an episode from the book of Judith, of the Old Testament, which is considered apocryphal by Protestants. The play tells the story of the assassination of the Assyrian general Holofernes by the Israelite Judith with the help of her maid Abra. Judith organized the assassination of the general,

Gentileski, however, did not choose the subject by chance. Many art historians consider the painting to be a form of revenge on the part of the painter for her rape by Agostino Tassi in 1611.

The case was brought to justice where her testimony, but Tassi's friends in high papal places were pulling strings. She is acquitted and Artemisia leaves Rome, the shadow of shame and dishonor hanging over her, to travel throughout Italy, mastering her wonderful skills. She would seek revenge on this patriarchal culture the only way she knew how: through her art.

Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo's surreal painting Henry Ford Hospital was created in 1932 after a miscarriage. The painting is on display and belongs to the Dolores Olmedo Museum in Mexico.

Through this painting, Kahlo wanted to externalize her pain and psychological state after the birth of a dead male fetus on July 4th at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, United States, when she was approximately 31⁄2 months pregnant. Depictions of childbirth, abortion, or miscarriage are rare in Western painting, and Kahlo is "one of the only major artists who directly communicated her reproductive mourning through visual art."

The painting is an emotional and disturbing self-portrait that represents her psychological state at the time. Her husband Diego Rivera encouraged Frida to make this oil painting on a metal frame. Diego hoped that by creating this work Frida would help her recovery.

Mary Cassatt

Although her family did not agree with her decision to become a professional artist, Cassatt began studying painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia when she was 15 years old. Her parents were concerned about their daughter's exposure to feminist ideas and the bohemian behavior of some of her male classmates. As such, Cassatt and her friends were lifelong advocates of equal rights for the sexes. Although about 20% of the students were female, most viewed art as a socially valuable skill. Few of them were determined, as Cassatt was, to make a career out of art.

So American painter Mary Cassatt moved to France to pursue an artistic career. She joined the French Impressionist movement in the late 19th century - one of the first and few female artists to do so.

While many Impressionists painted landscapes, Cassatt painted portraits of women doing mundane, domestic tasks. According to Gemma Newman, Cassatt's aim was to portray women's lives in a truthful, unromantic way.

Although Cassatt never married, through her amazing paintings she has amazingly depicted motherhood.

Margaret Kin

For years, painter Margaret Keane painted portraits of people with huge sad eyes and her husband, Walter, sold them. Her portraits were extremely popular in the 1950s and 1960s and fetched very good market prices. What Margaret didn't know though is that Walter was posing as the creator of the paintings and was taking credit.

When Margaret realized that her husband was "stealing" her work, she agreed to the scam. She would later tell the New York Times that: "I will always regret that I was not strong enough to stand up for my rights." According to her testimony, her husband threatened her and once tried to beat her. "When she wasn't home, she used to call every hour to make sure I hadn't gone out," she told the Guardian in 2014. Finally in 1970, Margaret decided to claim ownership of her paintings and when her husband replied that she was lying , sued him for defamation.

Margaret eventually won the case when the court asked them both to create a painting in front of the jury. She pulled through, while he cited a shoulder injury. She won $4 million in damages, but never got the money because Walter had squandered all the fortune he made selling her work.

However, she had stated that: "I didn't want money, I just wanted a legal victory." This story has also been made into a film by Tim Burton, with Amy Adams playing the role of Margaret Keane, and Christopher Walz playing the role of Walter Keane.