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Features
A sixteenth-century wet nurse at Florence’s Innocenti hospital. A drawing academy that accepted women painters as early as 1616. A city saved by the foreign author who made it her home. A palace in ruins, and the ‘mythological’ women buried under the rubble.
Our features shine a light on little-known stories and fascinating personalities. Meet the women whose gestures, big and small, create a mosaic of female heritage. Keep up with our favourite stories here. These blog-style features inspire our bi-annual magazine.
An American in Paris
Mary Cassatt’s retrospective at the Musée d’Orsay By Margie MacKinnon Above: Mary Cassatt, The Tea, c. 1880 © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Originally published in RESTORATION CONVERSATIONS magazine AUTUMN/WINTER, Issue 10 While her friend, rival and fellow Impressionist Berthe Morisot was recognised with exhibitions at the Musée de l’Orangerie in 1941 and the Musée d’Orsay in 2019, it is only now, one hundred years after her death, that Mary Cassatt (1844–1926) is the subject
An alternative reality
Inside the mind of Leonora Carrington By Margie MacKinnon Originally published in RESTORATION CONVERSATIONS magazine SPRING/SUMMER, Issue 9 Courtesy of the Freud Museum London. Artworks © 2026 Estate of Leonora Carrington / ARS, NY and DACS, London. Ph. © Lewis Ronald In 1938, the English author and artist Leonora Carrington (1917–2011) was living an idyllic life with her lover, the Surrealist painter Max Ernst (1891–1976) in Saint-Martin d’Ardèche in the south of France. Leo
A chance encounter with Juana Romani
In the article 'Sweet dreams and tragic heroines' Federica Parretti explores World Fair sweetheart, Juana Romani, portraitist and model. Originally published in RESTORATION CONVERSATIONS magazine SPRING/SUMMER, Issue 9 By Federica Parretti Juana Romani, La fille de Théodora, 1892–1893. Private collection. Source: Wikipedia My partner Stefano and I happened upon painter Juana Romani unexpectedly. We were traveling from Paris to the Normandy coast, after Covid-related travel r
Blue prints: Anna Atkins’ Cyanotype Impressions
"As a skilled botanical illustrator, Anna was part of a largely invisible community of women whose significant contributions to scientific advancement have gone mostly unnoticed." By Margie MacKinnon Originally published in RESTORATION CONVERSATIONS magazine SPRING/SUMMER, Issue 9 Anna Atkins, Carix (America), c. 1848-1853, George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, Rochester, New York In 1842, scientist John Herschel coined the term ‘cyanotype’ to d
The Illusion of Time: Major retrospectives for photographer Ruth Orkin
Until July 2026, the retrospective exhibition Ruth Orkin: The Illusion of Time is on show in Bologna’s Palazzo Pallavicini, following major European exhibitions over the last five years, in France, Spain, Portugal, Hungary and several other stops in Italy. By Linda Falcone Originally published in RESTORATION CONVERSATIONS magazine ISSUE 9 SPRING/ SUMMER 2026 Ruth Orkin, Jinx and Justin in MG, Florence, Italy, 1951, courtesy of © Ruth Orkin Photo Archive This interview begins
It Runs in the Family: The Legacy of the Nicholson Women
Relative Ties, the current exhibition at the Women’s Art Collection (WAC) at Murray Edwards College in Cambridge, explores the work of four women of the Nicholson family. By Margie MacKinnon Originally published in RESTORATION CONVERSATIONS magazine SPRING/SUMMER, Issue 9 EQ Nicholson, Runner Bean, c. 1950, wallpaper, © Estate of EQ Nicholson, private collection Relative Ties, the current exhibition at the Women’s Art Collection (WAC) at Murray Edwards College in Cambridge, e
Forces to be reckoned with
Renaissance Women: From d’Este to Dunant By Eleanor Walker Originally published in RESTORATION CONVERSATIONS magazine Spring/Summer 2026 - Issue 9 Renowned British author Sarah Dunant is known for her writing featuring strong, independent women in important Renaissance centres. Rubens (after Titian), Isabella in Red, c. 1605, Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna. Source: Wikipedia From In the Company of the Courtesan, and Sacred Hearts, to In the Name of the Family and The Birth o
Other Gardens: Elena Salvini Pierallini
By Linda Falcone Originally published in RESTORATION CONVERSATIONS magazine ISSUE 9 SPRING/ SUMMER 2026 Elena Salvini Pierallini, From the ‘Murabile’ wall series, Still Life with Onions and Bananas, detail, 1995, ph. ESP From ‘upright’ artbooks to time-lapse photographic series and larger installations, Florentine artist and photographer Elena Salvini Pierallini – known as ESP – produced a multi-faceted oeuvre, that was more than fifty years in the making. From June 15 to Sep
PROJECT. GIRLS IN THE INNOCENTI ARCHIVES (1900-1921): Restoration 2025 - 'Little Meteors'
The Innocenti Institute's Historical Archive, Ph. Marco Badiani, 2025 Little Meteors: The Girls Restoring Tokens at the Innocenti Institute By Linda Falcone This article was first published in Restoration Conversations Magazine Issue 7, Spring 2025 The Innocenti Hospital’s historical archive comprises more than 13,000 documents and objects from the thirteenth to the twentieth centuries, including ‘tokens’ that parents left with their foundling children, as proof of iden
Header photo: Fiora Leone, The Sun in Florence detail, Florence Civic Museums.
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