Women Artists of the Dutch Golden Age

A still life painting featuring a bowl of dead fish, silver platter with an oyster and shrimp, and a cat with a fish in its paws sitting next to it.
Oct 11, 2019, to Jan 05, 2020

This focus exhibition examines the lives and works of several highly successful artists in the Netherlands during the 17th and early 18th centuries, including Judith Leyster, Maria Sibylla Merian, Magdalena van de Passe, Clara Peeters, Rachel Ruysch, Maria Schalcken, Anna Maria van Schurman, and Alida Withoos.

The Dutch Golden Age was a period of unprecedented economic growth. A rising middle class of wealthy merchants fueled the demand for paintings and prints of still-lifes, portraits, and scenes of everyday life. Becoming an artist during this time was often part of the family business, for both men and women. While women faced more obstacles than their male counterparts did, this exhibition reveals that women of this era not only succeeded but also excelled as artists, pushing the boundaries of what was possible in art and in life.

Considered individually, the stories of the women represented in this exhibition reveal that there was not just one path to becoming an artist, nor was there only one model for success. Some trained with fathers or brothers, some apprenticed with independent masters, and some learned from other women. Marriage and family responsibilities hindered some artists at times, while others flourished in their careers despite having many children. Taken together, the works by these artists demonstrate their talent in a variety of genres—from still lifes to scenes of everyday life to botanical illustrations—as well as a range of mediums. Through a wider view encompassing each artist’s individual struggles and triumphs, a clearer and more nuanced picture of women artists during the Dutch Golden Age comes into focus.

Works in Women Artists of the Dutch Golden Age are drawn primarily from NMWA’s collection. Loans to the exhibition include rare books that testify to the international renown of these innovative artists.

A still life painting featuring an asymmetrical arrangement of flowers; the central section features pink, orange, yellow, and blue flowers and is dramatically highlighted compared to the background and outer edge of arrangement.

Rachel Ruysch, Roses, Convolvulus, Poppies and Other Flowers in an Urn on a Stone Ledge, ca. late 1680s; Oil on canvas, 42 1/2 x 33 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay; Photo by Lee Stalsworth

Exhibition Sponsors

Women Artists of the Dutch Golden Age, presented in the Teresa Lozano Long Gallery of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, is organized by the museum and generously supported by the members of NMWA.

    Exhibition Gallery

    Painting of a trio of smiling musicians. On the left, a man wears a large black hat and plays the violin. On the right sits a man in orange wearing a feathered hat and playing the mandolin. In the center sits a woman dressed in black, opening her mouth in song.
    Judith Leyster, The Concert, ca. 1633; Oil on canvas, 24 x 34 1/4 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay
    Still life painting features a reddish ceramic colander with several types of fish. In the foreground, a cat stands alert next to shrimp and oyster shells on a gleaming pewter dish.
    Clara Peeters, Still Life of Fish and Cat, after 1620; Oil on panel, 13 1/2 x 18 1/2 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay
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    The Artist,

    Clara Peeters

    A pioneer in the field of still-life painting, Clara Peeters is the only Flemish woman known to have specialized in such pictures as early as the first decade of the 17th century.

    The Artist,

    Judith Leyster

    Judith Leyster, an independent artist with her own workshop and pupils, had a talent for painting lively scenes of people enjoying themselves in taverns or playing music.
    Half-length interior painting of a smiling light-skinned adult woman with dark hair pulled back. She wears a white bonnet and dark-color dress with white lace trim and large collar. She leans back in a chair before a painting, holding a paintbrush, palette, and white cloth.

    The Artist,

    Maria Sibylla Merian

    Using her keen observational skills, Maria Sibylla Merian revolutionized both botany and zoology. From early childhood, she was interested in drawing insects and plants surrounding her.
    Etching of a woman holding the stem of a flower in her left land. Her white hair is short and curled to show an earring in her right ear. Her dress, with its lace collar and voluminous sleeves, looks like it is made from expensive fabrics. Her expresssion is open and frank.

    The Artist,

    Rachel Ruysch

    Rachel Ruysch was successful for nearly 70 years as a specialist in flower paintings.
    Drawing of an older light-skinned woman in an oval frame. She wears a white bonnet and scarf and stares directly at the viewer. Surrounding the frame sit various objects such as fruit, coins, and paint brushes and a palette.

    The Artist,

    Anna Maria van Schurman

    Known as the first woman to attend university in the Netherlands, Anna Maria van Schurman was a prolific artist in a variety of mediums, including painting, engraving and calligraphy.
    A painting of a light-skinned adult woman with dark hair. She wears a large, luxurious, brown fur coat and holds an open book in her hands.

    Related Media

    Map and Timeline

    Explore the movements and connections between the artists represented in the exhibition through this video.
    Watch Video , opens in new tab 

    Online Exhibition

    Realistic and detailed, the still life painting meticulously renders a variety of brightly colored flowers densely arranged in a dark round vase set against a dark background. The vase sits upon a stone ledge with two stray pink roses laying in the foreground.
    Explore an online version of Women Artists of the Dutch Golden Age, an exhibition examining the lives and works of several highly successful artists in the Netherlands during the 17th and early 18th centuries.
    view online exhibition