Letizia Treves, curator of the National Gallery's Artemisia exhibition on the artist's life and work

Letizia Treves curated The National Gallery’s Artemisia exhibition, which included some of the artist’s best-known paintings. Letizia discusses Artemisia's life and work with artist Catherine Goodman, exploring what it means to be a woman artist from the seventeenth century to the present.
In 17th-century Europe, at a time when women artists were not easily accepted, Artemisia Gentileschi was exceptional. She challenged conventions and defied expectations to become a successful artist and one of the greatest storytellers of her time.
Letizia Treves is The James and Sarah Sassoon Curator of Later Italian, Spanish and French 17th-century Paintings. She joined the National Gallery in 2013, following a long career in the Old Master Paintings Department at Sotheby’s, where she was a Senior Director and the principal worldwide specialist in Italian paintings. Since coming to the Gallery, Letizia has curated a number of exhibitions, notably Beyond Caravaggio (2016), Murillo: The Self Portraits (2018) and Bartolomé Bermejo: Master of the Spanish Renaissance (2019). In 2018 Letizia championed the National Gallery’s acquisition of Artemisia Gentileschi’s Self Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria, the first painting by the artist to enter a public collection in the UK, and she is the curator of the much-acclaimed Artemisia exhibition (2020).
Catherine Goodman is an artist, educator and the Founding Artistic Director of the Royal Drawing School, which she established with HRH The Prince of Wales in 2000. She was appointed as a Trustee of The National Gallery in November 2019.