Grace's Vote by Lisbet Axell

Lisbet Axell

Grace's Vote

Mixed Media

72 x 60 x 1.5 in

In 1914, Grace Marcon cast her vote in the only way available to her, by taking a knife to five paintings in London’s National Gallery. She was inspired by Mary Richardson’s earlier chopping of Diego Veasquez’s Rokeby Venus, which Richardson justified by saying, “I have tried to destroy the picture of the most beautiful woman in mythological history as a protest against the Government destroying Mrs Pankhurst, who is the most beautiful character in modern history. Justice is an element of beauty as much as colour and outline on canvas.” Marcon and Richardson were joined by Mary Wood (reportedly “an elderly woman of distinctly peaceable appearance”), who hacked apart a portrait of Henry James, stating that, “I have tried to destroy a valuable picture because I wish to show the public that they have no security for their property nor for their art treasures until women are given political freedom.