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Too often overlooked, many exceptional Limousin women have stood out in a masculine world that offered them little space. To echo March 8, International Women's Day, for equal rights and the memory of feminist struggles, we have chosen to offer six portraits among our local heroines, from yesterday and today. They are athletes, they are activists, they are artists... but above all, they are admirable and touch us with their actions and the messages they carry.
Suzanne Valadon
The female painter par excellence
Born in 1865 in Bessines-sur-Gartempe in Haute-Vienne, Suzanne Valadon did not receive artistic training as such, but it was a relentless designer who will construct her own pictorial languagel. In the atmosphere of Montmartre, she rubbed shoulders with art with her artist friends, admirers and lovers, for whom she was a model from 1880. She observed them while posing and thus learned their techniques. Toulouse-Lautrec showed her his Japanese prints, Bartholomé encouraged her to exhibit and Degas taught her engraving. She also drew inspiration from Courbet, Cézanne and Gauguin and visited museums a lot.
Maryse Bastie
Great aviator, feminist and idealist
Born in 1898 in a modest Limoges background, a shoe worker for a time, Maryse Bastié changes her horizons and propels herself into the air with her passion for piloting which she discovered thanks to her second husband. Her fame took off with a spectacular feat: in 1925, with her pilot's license in her pocket, she passed under the Bordeaux transporter bridge.
And its scope goes beyond that: feminist, she proclaimed it by declaring one day to a journalist "Is woman only the beautiful half of the human race, whose mission is to make life pleasant for the other half?" and by committing herself in favor of women's suffrage. As well, she encourages the use of Esperanto – universal language. During the War, She joined the Red Cross, but also the Resistance..Radiant, courageous, combative … She faced very difficult flying conditions in small aircraft cabins and nearly died several times. She also died in an accident at the age of 54.
Jeannette Dussartre-Chartreux
The activist of emancipatory struggles
It was in 1923 in Limoges, in the working-class district of Ponticauds, that Jeannette Dussartre was born. On the industrialized banks of the Vienne, she forged her character among generations of working-class women., before working in a workshop and then in administration. Converted to Catholicism, she cultivated with Henri, her priest-worker husband, an altruistic vision of religion and committed his whole life to peace movements. Jeannette Dussartre's commitment can be seen in her investment in the CGT's Institute of Social History: she works on collecting workers' memoriesIn 2009, she revealed an emblematic episode of feminist struggles, that of the corsetiers...
Lea Sham's
The contemporary artist at the heart of the Limousin enamel tradition
The artist Léa Sham's is part of the great tradition of this know-how: It brings its particular sensitivity to enamel and magnifies objects with a lively chromatic display.Born in Haute-Vienne in 1956 and after studying plastic arts in Amiens, she trained in enamel at the Atelier Fauré in Limoges between 1975 and 1978. Since 1989, she has lived in Limousin and has created numerous religious "figures", liturgical furniture, stained glass windows, visible, among other places, in the cathedrals of Tulle or Saint-Étienne, the churches of Objat or Saint-Hilaire-les-Places.
Her decorations are inspired by both folk and decorative arts, a work nourished by an intense observation and attention to everyday life. Her attraction to pure colors remains palpable; red, a warm and joyful vibration, remains her favorite color, occupying a large part of her works. Over time, she has built a small vocabulary combining roses, scrolls, crowns, gold papers, checkerboards, the letter A, hands, polka dots, seeds, leaves, marbles, squares, lines, points ... She likes to give her pieces the appearance of silks or sweets and deliberately overloads her ornaments.
The future of female enamel expertise is assured!
Lise Rathonie is a passionate artist who perpetuates and reinvents the art of enamel with a exceptional mastery. His work, at the crossroads of the tradition and modernity, demonstrates excellent know-how that it places at the service of contemporary creation.
President of SPEF (Syndicat Professionnel des Émailleurs Français), it plays a key role in the promotion and transmission of this art, by defending the place of enamel in the current artistic and artisanal landscape. In 2022, it carried Impertinent, a major event bringing together theenamel and metal, thus illustrating the fruitful dialogue between these two materials and affirming the audacity of enamelled creation.
Through her works and her commitment, Lise Rathonie embodies the vitality of exceptional know-how and inspires a new generation of artists and artisans.
Sema Lao
A street artist, renowned muralist in France and abroad
Sêma Lao is an artist who impresses through her art visible in public spaces. This 33-year-old woman – born in Limoges in 1987, of a Chinese father and a German mother, her first name meaning "sign" in Greek – likes to tackle sometimes very high walls. She likes challenges, like in Blois, where in March 2018 she transformed an ordinary 6-story building into a giant portrait of Angela Davis, famous activist for human and women's rights in the United States.
I paint on walls but I also do exhibitions. I define myself more as a muralist.
Jeanine Assani-Issouf
The “Ninja” among athletes
Adopted by Limoges, Jeanine Assani-Issouf was born in Marseille in 1992 and grew up in a family of 7 brothers and sisters, a family originally from Mayotte. For her father's work, she moved to Limoges in the La Bastide district at the age of 4. Nicknamed the "Ninja", it's a French athlete specializing in the triple jump. At the age of 12, the sportswoman won her first athletics competition with CAPO Limoges, then continued her career with Limoges Athlé, sailing from success to success both in France and internationally.
Limoges, land of women's sport
Every year, Limoges welcomes the great talents of women's tennis for an exceptional tournament registered in the WTA calendar, the major world tennis circuit: theLimoges Open BLSThis event highlights the many female players playing at the highest level, providing a real source of inspiration for the new generation.
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