Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam, 1600-1750

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.
Sep 26, 2025, to Jan 11, 2026

Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam, 1600-1750 showcases a broad range of work by more than forty Dutch and Flemish women artists, including 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. Presenting an array of paintings, lace, prints, paper cuttings, embroidery, and sculpture, this 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.

Three-quarter self-portrait print set in an oval with inscriptions along the perimeter depicts a light-skinned young woman with hair pinned up, wearing an elegant dress with an oversized lace collar and sleeves, gazing directly at the viewer.

Anna Maria van Schurman, Self-Portrait, 1640; Engraving on paper, 8 1/2 x 6 3/8 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay

Exhibition Sponsors

Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam, 1600–1750 is organized in partnership with the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent, Belgium.

The exhibition is made possible by Denise Littlefield Sobel with major support provided by Morgan Stanley and Tara Rudman. Additional funding is provided by Martha Lyn Dippell and Daniel L. Korengold, Lugano, Patricia and George White, Laurel and John Rafter, and an anonymous donor. Further support comes from Marcia Myers Carlucci, Dutch Culture USA program by the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York, Jacqueline Badger Mars, Kay Woodward Olson, Tavolozza Foundation, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Angela LoRé, Anne L. von Rosenberg, Ilene S. and Jeffrey S. Gutman, Samuel H. Kress Foundation, Anne N. Edwards, the Netherland-America Foundation, and Frances Luessenhop Usher.

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,

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.

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,

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.