May I suggest that the study of art history is somewhat biased toward men...there are many female artists who are underrepresented in the art history classes taught in our universities. The fact that women like George Eliot (since you brought writers into the circle of artists for this discussion) could only find success writing under a man's name, or that artists like those represented at the National Museum of Women in the Arts are not well known seems to highlight that fact. The women artists are out there, do the male art historians want to concern themselves? (Yes, that is a generalization)