ABSTRACT
Guild, a term most often associated with medieval craftspeople, designates an ‘association of people for mutual aid or the pursuit of a common goal’. According to guild historian R. A. Leeson, both ‘bretheren and sisteren’ took part in the early organizations although, by the sixteenth century, restrictions began to be enforced against female membership in many organizations. Christina Paterson Ross earned her living and negotiated her status as an artist within and without artists’ organizations. Unemployment was high and trade was slow but the Institute persevered in its attempts to provide a venue and a market for struggling artists and, although women artists were not amongst the subscribing members,18 their pictures appeared in Institute exhibitions regularly and in ever-increasing numbers. Artists’ incomes, like actors, reflect a similar situation with an odd but explainable twist: the women priced their own pictures when they placed them in exhibiting venues.
