Acknowledgements

I am indebted to Jenny Lord of Weidenfeld & Nicolson for not only suggesting I pitch her an idea but then supporting my proposal and improving the final product with her insightful editing. A massive thank you to my agent, David Godwin, for his boundless support and enthusiasm. I would also like to thank my Project Editor Clarissa Sutherland, my copyeditor Richard Mason, and the designer Steve Marking.

I could not have written this book without the boundless support of family and friends, near and far. I thank you all, but in particular, Alice Higgie-Crosbie, Andrew Higgie and Suzie Higgie; Polly Braden, Tommaso Corvi-Mora, Dominic Eichler, Cornelia Grassi, Donna Huddleston, Shelley Klein, Luke Milne, Martine Murray, David Noonan, Kirsty Argyle, Chloe Aridjis, Negar Azimi, Michael Bracewell, Lisa Brice, Daniel Cataldi, Adam Chodzko, Judith Clark, Eric and Wendy van Cuylenberg, Adam Davies, Bayard Ficht, Jack Finsterer, Toby Follett, Dan Fox, Kira Freije, Peter Graham, Sarah Greentree, Garrick Jones, Roland Kapferer, Janice Kerbel, Paul Kildea, Maria Kontis, Sylvia Kouvali, Rannva Kunnoy, Garth McLean, Rafael Ortega, Duro Olowu, Felicity Packard, Amalia Pica, Michael Raedecker, Chris Rickwood, Paul Schütze, Renee So, Polly Staple, Annika Ström and Sam Thorne.

I am grateful to frieze magazine for granting me a three-month sabbatical that allowed me the rare luxury of full-time writing. I have learned so much from frieze friends and colleagues, past and present, and I thank them all.

I bow down to all of the artists who appear in this book for their bravery and brilliance: their legacy continues to enrich the world.

Without the many books and articles that I have cited, I would not have been able to write this one. I am indebted to the brilliant authors and publishers who have kept – and continue to keep – the conversation about women in art history alive.

I wrote much of this book in the National Library, Canberra, the library of the National Gallery of Australia and the British Library in London: oases of sanity. Thank you to each and every librarian!

I dedicate The Mirror and the Palette to my mother, Jean Higgie. She – and my beloved and much-missed father, William Higgie – instilled in me a love of art, books and history, people and places, that I can never repay.