Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam, 1600–1750

This landmark exhibition showcases paintings, lace, prints, paper cuttings, embroidery, and sculpture by more than forty Dutch and Flemish women, including celebrated painters who excelled in a male-dominated field and unsung makers who created some of the most expensive lace of the day. Drawing on recent scholarship to demonstrate women’s contributions to the artistic economy, the show explores how women shaped the visual culture of the era.

Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam, 1600-1750 includes work by Gesina ter Borch, Maria Faydherbe, Anna Maria de Koker, Judith Leyster, Magdalena van de Passe, Clara Peeters, Rachel Ruysch, Maria Tassaert, Jeanne Vergouwen, Michaelina Wautier, and more. The exhibition draws on recent scholarship to demonstrate that a full view of women’s contributions to the artistic economy is essential to understanding Dutch and Flemish visual culture of the period. Women were involved in virtually every aspect of artistic production in the Low Countries during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. During this period, colonial exploitation and the international slave trade enriched Europe’s upper and middle classes, fueling demand for art and other luxuries. From celebrated painters who excelled in a male-dominated field to unsung women who toiled making some of the most expensive lace of the day, to wealthy patrons who shaped collecting practices, women created the very fabric of the visual culture of the era. Within a thematic presentation that considers the intertwined influences of status, family, and social expectations on a woman’s training and career choices, this exhibition demonstrates the many ways in which women of all classes contributed to the booming artistic economy of the day. Whether their work was circulated within aristocratic social circles, sold on the open market, or commissioned by patrons, women shaped and molded the world around them from Antwerp to Amsterdam.