Italian Women in Church

Susan Isabel Dacre 1844 - 1933

Summary

Two Italian women in peasant dress with headscarves, standing together against an interior background. Both stand looking to the left, one woman carrying a baby in her arms. The painting is realistic, both women have a vacant expression on thier faces, and are looking off in the direction they are facing, to the left. The artist studied at the Manchester School of Art, as well as Italy and Paris. She later established a successful exhibiting society.

Display Label

Whose Power on Display?

A group of Manchester Art Gallery staff, artist-collaborators and gallery users worked with artist Sonia Boyce to start a process of change. We are exploring how the politics of class, gender, race and sexuality in the gallery’s historic collection displays can be reconsidered for today. Six Acts is part of an ongoing public conversation asking what we may miss if contemplating works of art solely for their aesthetic or narrative qualities.

Works on display in this gallery often use classical myth to perpetuate Victorian myths of gender and power. They can expose power relationships at play in art and society and reveal some of the stereotypes and inequalities that shape people’s lives. The current labels could be seen as limiting, as there are many different ways to understand these works of art.

The gallery is a place where we question the present as much as the past. Art shapes as well as reflects society, so how we redisplay this gallery is important and open for discussion.