Book excerpt: This book aims at exploring the reciprocal interaction between art and culture, and specifically how the literary and artistic images of mid nineteenth-century Jewish female artists are interwoven with their factual lifestyles, self-representations, and the reception of their work. By analyzing the reciprocal relationship between the dominant culture in which they are embedded and their work, I show how the literary and artistic images of Jewish female artists (as depicted by Jews and non-Jews) are interwoven with the factual lifestyles, culture, and self-representations of real Jewish artists. Moreover, my research reveals how those representations are related to society’s centuries-long ambivalence towards Jews, and specifically towards Jewish female artists, as it is revealed in literature and art.