A rare major retrospective dedicated to women who shaped the art world in the 17th century’s Golden Age of Dutch and Flemish art was held at the Museum of Fine Arts (MSK) in Ghent, Belgium, earlier this year.
Titled Unforgettable, it was put together over two years by Frederica Van Dam, curator of the Old Masters at MSK, in collaboration with the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC. The show brought together art by 40 women, created in that golden age (1600 to 1750; best known for the works of artists such as Vermeer, Rembrandt, Reubens and Anthony van Dyck). Here are five exceptional pieces from among those showcased.
A SELFIE FROM THE 1630s
Judith Leyster (1609 - 1660), daughter of a Haarlem clothmaker, was about 21 when she painted this self-portrait. She had taken up art to help support her family. The artwork is an unusually casual view. Leyster, looking like she’s just been interrupted, leans back a bit, one arm on the back of her chair, a (mildly annoyed or expectant ?) smile on her face, brush in one hand and palette in the other, while on her canvas a grinning young man plays a fiddle, presenting herself as a confident young artist with a clear trademark: lively, colourful scenes from everyday life.
HIDDEN IN A VASE
Johanna Helena Herolt (1668 - c. 1723) toys with the idea of the self-portrait in Flower Vase (1698; loaned from Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig), which contains a view of herself in a subtle reflection of light. “What at first glance appears as modesty is in fact a confident reference to a technical virtuosity reminiscent of the 15th-century master Jan van Eyck,” said a statement by MSK Ghent. Born and raised in Germany, Herolt was the daughter of painters and learned to paint from her parents.
AWORLD IN A WINE GLASS
Clara Peeters (c. 1594 - 1676) created floral still-lifes that display an incredible command of optical effects. She combined botanical accuracy with hyper-realistic details such as dewdrops and insect-bitten leaves. In Cheesestack with Knife… (1615), she captures a window in her studio, reflected sharply in the curve of a decorative wine glass.
BODY POSITIVE
Among Catharine Backer’s (1689 - 1766) botanical works are her intricate studies of faces: eyes, mouth, chin. She sketches them over and over, indicating access to male subjects and technical study (both rare things for women at the time). Backer, who was also an art collector, was the daughter of a lawyer in a prominent Amsterdam family.
ON THE CLOCK
Time is almost a character in the art of Josina Margareta Weenix (1684 - 1724). Trained in the family studio, she is relatively new to art-historical literature. It was only in 2020 that historians Sam Segal and Klara Alen first linked her to a small group of still lifes: a dozen paintings of flowers and fruit. Her father, Jan Weenix, was regarded as a master of the form. Josina worked with him for a period, as a court painter, and in this capacity also painted 12 grand wall decorations for Bensberg Castle near Cologne.
Click here for more on Renaissance masters, abstract pioneers: women the art world ‘forgot’
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