Judith Leyster, a Dutch golden age artist, was about 21 when she painted her self-portrait in 1630. In the picture she presented to the world, Leyster exuded sunny confidence. Clad in shimmering silks and a stiffly starched lace collar, she leant back in her chair, holding palette and brushes, a painting by her side. This work, completed in the year she was admitted to a painters’ guild in Haarlem, proclaimed her arrival as an established artist. It was one of the first self-portraits by an artist in the Dutch republic, a device most male painters did not adopt until years later.
Boy and a Girl with a Cat and an Eel, 1635
by Judith Leyster
While celebrated in her lifetime, Leyster was quickly forgotten after her death. A posthumous inventory attributed some of her paintings to the wife of the deceased, referring to her artist husband, Jan Miense Molenaer. Then she disappeared. Her works were attributed to Frans Hals, other male contemporaries, or simply unknown master. Those paintings under her name were little esteemed. In the 1970s a major US museum sold one; other institutions left her work unseen in their vaults. Now the painter, enjoying a revival, is back in the spot-light. She's one of 40+ female artists who worked in the Low Countries in the baroque period featured in this new exhibition
Unforgettable: Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam 1600-1750 opened Mar 2026 at Ghent Museum of Fine Arts/MSK, after the earlier Washington DC exhibition. The MSK exhibition seeks to restore women to one of the most feted eras of art history, best known for works by Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer and Anthony van Dyck. As MSK puts it in its slogan: Old masters were women too.
Curator Frederica Van Dam said the exhibition asked visitors to reflect on “why haven’t we seen many artworks by women before?” The catalogue mentioned 179 women who were active in the art economy of the Low Countries, which corresponded to the modern-day Netherlands, and Flanders in northern Belgium. Many of them were admired in their lifetimes. Still-life paintings by Maria van Oosterwijck, for example, adorned palace walls throughout Europe.
Still Life with Flowers in a Decorative Vase
Maria van Oosterwijck c1673
In 1697 Russian Tsar Peter I visited the Amsterdam home of Johanna Koerten, a woman who specialised in paper-cutting art on paper, a craft blending drawing, calligraphy and sculpture. Koerten was paid handsomely for her talents: a work of woven silk in a rustic manner made for the Holy Roman Empress was said to earn her more than twice what Rembrandt made for The Night Watch.
Gentileschi, Self-Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria,
c1616, National Gall London
Women were written out of the story in the C19th when art history became a discipline. Art historians, who were mainly men, decided what was good art and what was worth writing about. When women did have a walk-on role, they were deemed imitators. That fate befell Rachel Ruysch. Although collectors had long sought her floral stilllifes, admired for their great attention to detail and refined brushstrokes, scholars dismissed her work as derivative. I have seen all her stilllifes, but this self portrait is sublime.
The exhibition is part of growing rediscovery of women who were long absent from art history records, from Italian baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1654) and her near contemporary of Southern Netherlands, Michaelina Wautier, to the Belgian modernist Marthe Donas.
The exhibition is part of growing rediscovery of women who were long absent from art history records, from Italian baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1654) and her near contemporary of Southern Netherlands, Michaelina Wautier, to the Belgian modernist Marthe Donas.
Two Girls as Saint Agnes and Saint Dorothea,
Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp. c1650
The C19th was also when painting became the apex of the art museum, over-shadowing the applied arts that women excelled at, such as paper-cutting, calligraphy and lace-making. In the early modern era, lace commanded very high prices, although poorer women, nuns and orphaned girls who usually made the exquisite fans, veils, aprons and tableware earned a pittance. These artists remained anonymous in their lifetimes, signing contemporary records with an “X”.
While many female artists will remain lost to history, some are being re-discovered. The painter Catrina Tieling had been almost entirely forgotten until 2025, when a Dutch art historian reexamined works long attributed to her brother, Lodewijk, and concluded they were in fact signed CT. The exhibition shows Catrina Tieling’s rustic scene of two shepherdesses resting beside a herd of cows, a rare example of an Italianate landscape by a woman.
It also charts some women’s life-changing and unusual decisions. Louise Hollandine converted to Catholicism and entered a convent to maintain her artistic freedom. The daughter of exiled royalty, Hollandine had a gilded childhood in The Hague, becoming a talented portrait painter of friends and family. But she fled her comfortable princess life in 1657 to become a French Benedictine nun, rather than marry her nephew, as her fa-mily wanted. At the convent, she switched to religious genre scenes, although many did not survive the French Revolution. The exhibition shows self-portraits of Hollandine in both lives. In the first, she was cool and poised, fancy in rich silks and a big beribboned hat; in a lat-er work, she made an austere impression, wearing a cross and dressed in a black and white nun’s habit.
Van Dam said art literature needs to see more research into female art-ists and efforts to make their work accessible. Through this exhibition a clear expression of how valuable the works were for the artistic community; it recovered the history of a largely forgotten creative economy in the C17th, when women were vital participants.
While many female artists will remain lost to history, some are being re-discovered. The painter Catrina Tieling had been almost entirely forgotten until 2025, when a Dutch art historian reexamined works long attributed to her brother, Lodewijk, and concluded they were in fact signed CT. The exhibition shows Catrina Tieling’s rustic scene of two shepherdesses resting beside a herd of cows, a rare example of an Italianate landscape by a woman.
It also charts some women’s life-changing and unusual decisions. Louise Hollandine converted to Catholicism and entered a convent to maintain her artistic freedom. The daughter of exiled royalty, Hollandine had a gilded childhood in The Hague, becoming a talented portrait painter of friends and family. But she fled her comfortable princess life in 1657 to become a French Benedictine nun, rather than marry her nephew, as her fa-mily wanted. At the convent, she switched to religious genre scenes, although many did not survive the French Revolution. The exhibition shows self-portraits of Hollandine in both lives. In the first, she was cool and poised, fancy in rich silks and a big beribboned hat; in a lat-er work, she made an austere impression, wearing a cross and dressed in a black and white nun’s habit.
Van Dam said art literature needs to see more research into female art-ists and efforts to make their work accessible. Through this exhibition a clear expression of how valuable the works were for the artistic community; it recovered the history of a largely forgotten creative economy in the C17th, when women were vital participants.
Ghent Museum of Fine Arts/MSK
CODART
On 21-22nd May MSK Ghent and the University of Antwerp is running a two-day symposium together with the exhibition Unforgettable. Women artists from Antwerp-Amsterdam The symposium unites art historians, museum professionals and art market experts, sharing their insights on 5 themes: identity, choices, networks, legacy and technique.
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24 comments:
Gentileschi's self portrait is sublime. Why did the male artists not welcome her?
Men have felt threatened by women for centuries, with no good reason. The exhibition sounds most worthwhile.
Good to read about these artists, and it only takes one person of note to purchases a painting then there appears are bound to be more.
Love the self portrait.
"Unforgettable: Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam 1600-1750" by Virginia Treanor et al. examines the overlooked contributions of female artists in the C17th Low Countries. While male artists like Rembrandt and Vermeer dominated art history, female artists such as Clara Peeters and Michaelina Wautier received limited recognition.
This book challenges the notion that women were exceptions in the art world, showcasing works by over 40 artists across diverse media, and highlights the socio-economic contexts that shaped their careers. Through a thematic approach, "Unforgettable" aims to restore long-overdue recognition to these artists.
I had been watching some video on forgotten female artist mainly from late 1800's into the early 1900's.
A long-overdue correction, this exhibition restores artists like Judith Leyster and Rachel Ruysch to their rightful place alongside Rembrandt van Rijn, revealing how history, not talent, rendered them invisible.
That's a lot of women who have been "forgotten". I wonder if they were forgotten about over a long time or if it was during a specific time period. Happy new month!
Deb
It seems that male artists and art historians admired her work during her busy career. But after she died in 1654, noone wrote about her work and none of her paintings were shown in public galleries.
Rediscover seemed to wait until Roberto Longhi published a praising article in 1916 called "Gentileschi father and daughter" in the journal L'Arte.
jabblog
you would have thought that most male artists didn't make huge profits from their own work and largely didn't have a high status in their communities.
So if they were lucky enough to marry a talented artist, they would have been delighted to cooperate with her.
Margaret
Because I loved C17th Lowland paintings, I recognised the key works of Artemisia Gentileschi, Rachel Ruysch and Judith Leyster, and even one or two of Maria van Oosterwijck. But I had never heard of Michaelina Wautier, Catrina Tieling, Louise Hollandine, Geertruydt Roghman, Anna Maria van Schurman, Maria Faydherbe, Margareta de Heer or Johanna Vergouwen's paintings. So you are right... there are bound to be more.
Many thanks S & S.
I will check that that our TAFE's library has a copy, and if not, I will add it to their collection.
peppylady
did those women suffer from the same lack of interest and ignorance as the 1600-1750 women artists in the Lowlands did? Perhaps by the second half of the 19th century, art history was becoming more inclusive.
roentare
you are quite right about women artists - we see how history, not talent, rendered them invisible.
But what if male artists were only averagely talented? Would they have disappeared from the galleries and journals?
Erika
not just art, right. Lise Meitner was nominated for the Nobel Prize 48 times but never awarded. She led the team that discovered nuclear fission, but her male collaborator Otto Hahn was awarded the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry alone.
I find the Boy and Girl with cat and eel to be creepy. Those are not children's faces to my eye, they are middle-aged or more. I could never buy such a painting.
River
Absolutely.
I looked at "Odalisque on the Terrace" by Henri Matisse, worth millions when it was stolen from an Italian gallery near Parma. Just because a painting is worth millions does not mean I liked it.
Hello Hels, It seems that whenever we look at historic artists (or indeed any area of life) we find women practitioners. I have been to many art exhibits that contained paintings by women, including Dutch still-lifes, but beyond mentioning the fact no big deal was made, although the point deserves underlining. Also, many male artists or studios (such as the famous Tiffany studios) relied on female artists for the execution and often the design of the pieces. These female artists are now getting a little more credit, but one hundred years after their deaths is way too late.
--Jim
One more comment, I think that the Judith Leyster Boy and Girl with Cat and Eel painting was part of a known subgroup of Dutch paintings. I imagine that they were considered genre paintings, and there must have been a market for them because immediately Molenaer's famous Children Making Music with violin, helmet and rommel-pot, with the same hideous, grinning faces, came to mind:
https://www.essentialvermeer.com/folk_music/rommelpot/Molenaer-boys-girl-making-music-1629.jpg
Rommel pots must have brought out the worst in Dutch painters because I also found Frans Hals even toothier The Rommel-Pot Player:
https://uploads5.wikiart.org/images/frans-hals/the-rommel-pot-player-1.jpg!Large.jpg
But modern people are just as guilty. The of the weird big-eye paintings of Margaret Keane, or the overly-sentimental villages of Thomas Kinkade, with so much light pouring out of each window that everything looks on fire. I'd still rather have that Leyster than any Kinkade.
--Jim
Parnassus, many successful artists relied on male and female apprentices for the bulk work, especially in large paintings, Thus they probably painted the landscapes at back, skies and the gardens & paths at front. The artists who signed the works took credit for the paintings, even though they only painted the portraits, clothes, architecture, weapons and animals.
Parnassus
tastes in painting styles and in contents change quite often, so you may love Dutch golden era art and not love Expressionist art.
I personally admire "Children Making Music with violin, helmet and rommel-pot" by Molenaer, but I would give the Margaret Keane works to the local op shop for free.
What a great exhibition, Women artists in the Baroque era. Wish I could go to Ghent to see it. Thank you for telling us about it.
Patricia If you cannot get to the exhibition, I recommend you order the large catalogue "Unforgettable: Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam 1600-1750" by by Frederica van Dam. Booktopia, Amazon, Thames & Hudson Aus etc. Well worth reading.
Long before I ever learnt anything about feminism I remember my mother saying that the art women produce is mostly looked down upon. Mum was saying that as an accomplished knitter and seamstress, knowing that painting and sculpture are the serious arts.
She was on the money.
It is good, even inspiring, to know women are receiving some recognition
kylie
I know women are not publicly rubbished for their cultural productions any more, but I still wonder if they are represented in art galleries, orchestras, architecture, stained glass etc according to their numbers.
So "The Unforgettable: Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam" Exhibition was needed because many visitors would never have seen those talented women before in their local galleries.
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