Susanne Renate Granitsch
Self-portrait

1899
Wien Museum, 133272

In 1918, women in Austria were granted universal suffrage. From 1919 they were granted unrestricted access to universities, as well as the opportunity to study at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. Previously, access for women to artistic training was restricted – possibilities being expensive private tuition, or by studying at the School of Arts and Crafts – an opportunity taken by Susanne Granitsch, whose self-portrait shows her as a plein-air painter wearing a sun-hat, in front of her easel. A few years after painting this self-portrait, Granitsch – together with seven other women – founded the Eight Artists Group. Between 1900 and 1912, they held group exhibitions in the Pisko Art Salon and regularly invited guest contributions from other female artists. The network of female painters, graphic artists and sculptors was intended to counteract the lack of exhibition opportunities in the male-dominated Viennese art world around 1900.