International Women’s Day 2024

“To Christina, My dearest friend...”

Poets Christina Rossetti and Lisa Wilson first began corresponding in the 1880s and finally met in 1885, when Rossetti offered Wilson a copy of her new book Time Flies (“Don’t expect me to be as nice as my poems or you will be disappointed,” she warned). The meeting was the start of a close, lifelong friendship.

In 1892, Wilson presented Rossetti with an illustrated collection of poems, in which Rossetti also inscribed a short verse dedicated to her friend. Other gifts from Rossetti to Wilson, including an author’s presentation copy of Goblin Market, feature in the Fine Books & Manuscripts auction at London, Knightsbridge.

Browse the auction: Fine Books and Manuscripts | 20 March, London, Knightsbridge

Read: Movers and Shakers | Women Writers Who Changed The Course of History

Jane Graverol

Belgian artist Jane Graverol’s captivating works centre on the female experience in a blend of surrealism and symbolism, often combining everyday objects with supernatural forces. Closely linked to the Surrealism movement in Belgium, René Magritte organised an exhibition of her work in 1950.

Today, Graverol continues to leave a mark on the art world. Following a new auction record price in March 2023 for Le Trait de Lumière, and further sales that year for La chute de Babylone and Le don de la parole in June and December respectively – a testament to her enduring appeal – her painting Le bon bout de la raison will star in our 100 Years of Surrealism auction in Paris on 27 March.

Preview auction: 100 Years of Surrealism | 27 March, Paris

Read: 10 Women Surrealists You Need to Know

Vanessa Bell

With her distinctive style, bold colours and fluid lines, Vanessa Bell – a central figure in the Bloomsbury Group – continues to captivate collectors and enthusiasts with her avant-garde approach to art (and life). Her works will feature in Bloomsbury: Modern British Art online auction in April – including a view from Rio degli Ognissanti, an area in Venice where she always stayed, and a design for a chair back for her sister, author Virginia Woolf.

Preview auction: Bloomsbury: Modern British Art | 8-18 April, Online

100 years of pioneering women artists at Bruun Rasmussen – Part of the Bonhams Network

50 artworks by some of the most celebrated women artists, sculptors and designers working from 1850 to 1950 featured in Bruun Rasmussen’s Pioneering Women Artists auction on 4 March in Copenhagen. Led by Bertha Wegmann’s A Young woman in thought, other highlights include works by Tove Jansson, creator of the Moomins, Anna Ancher from the Skagen painters, ceramicist Lucie Rie, painter Gerda Wegener and many more.

Browse the auction: Pioneering Women Artists | 4 March, Copenhagen

Ruth Bader Ginsburg White Glove Sale Raises Nearly Half a Million for SOS Children's Villages (2022)

In a spectacular flurry of activity, the final offering from the collection of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice totalled $516,090. The top lot was one of RBG’s iconic judicial collars, which achieved more than 58 times its estimate. During her trailblazing 27-year service on the Supreme Court, Justice Ginsburg chose to style her judicial robes with bold collars – many of these are now in major museums.

Read more: RBG White Glove Sale Raises Nearly Half a Million for SOS Children's Villages

Rachel Jones: “A painter for the modern era” (2022)

Rachel Jones has created a lusty, tactile and impeccably modern abstraction that talks to us about living as a Black woman in contemporary Britain, writes Aindrea Emelife in Bonhams Magazine.

Read more: Bonhams Magazine | Life in Colour

Jareh Das’s picks from Abuja! Ladi Kwali & The Art of Clay (2023)

When Ladi Kwali joined the Abuja Pottery Training Centre in 1954 as the first female trainee, she transformed once-functional objects for storing water into collectable decorative works, says curator Dr Jareh Das.

Here, Jareh picks her favourite works from Abuja! Ladi Kwali & The Art of Clay – by Kwali, Bala Yawa, Peter Kuma Gboko and more – and explain why they stood out to her.

Read more: Under the Hammer | Abuja! Ladi Kwali & The Art of Clay

Meet the Collector: Karine Huts (2023)

“There are very few art movements that have set out to change the world.” The CoBrA artists arose in fury from the ashes of the Second World War. Collector Karine Huts, founder of CoBrA Depot in Antwerp, speaks to Lucinda Bredin for Bonhams Magazine about what the movement means to her.

Read more: Bonhams Magazine | Boiling point