In today’s episode, I’m joined by Gemma Haigh, now known to many as The Plant Parlour (where she champions cultivating lush botanical spaces), but who first made her mark as curator and researcher on the exhibition Georgian Women: Female Portraits by John Russell RA. During that project, she researched 19 female portraits in Guildford Heritage’s acclaimed Russell collection, interrogating how Russell’s pastel portraits of daughters, wives, and social figures both reflected and resisted gendered expectations in Georgian Britain.

Gemma guides us through the power dynamics embedded in pastel and paint: how Russell’s art objectified and elevated his sitters; what it says about the male gaze and elite femininity; and how those images gain new meaning when reinterpreted through a feminist lens today. We discuss how modern viewers can learn to read these portraits with fresh eyes and explore what their stories reveal about identity, visibility, and portraiture as a form of social control.

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