Unforgettable: Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam, 1600-1750

Clara Peeters, Still Life with Cheeses and Crayfish, ca. 1615, private collection.

Women played a vital role in the artistic life of the Low Countries between 1600 and 1750. Yet classical art history has largely ignored their key status within the creative economy. With the exhibition Unforgettable, MSK contributes to a more complete narrative of the art history of the Low Countries. The impressive list of works of art on show, created by more than 40 women, proves that women artists were anything but rare or unknown. Their influence on the visual culture of the Low Countries can be felt to this day. Unforgettable presents these artists you might not know, but whom you will definitely never forget.

Unforgettable is the first ever major retrospective dedicated entirely to the role and significance of women in the arts during the long 17th century, specifically for the region of Belgium and the Netherlands (the historical Low Countries). After more than two years of research, the exhibition was able to gather works by well over 40 women artists active between 1600 and 1750. It covers the full range of visual media: from paintings, prints and sculptures to textiles or paper cuttings.

The exhibition shows that women were active in just about every artistic discipline and aspect of production. It highlights the celebrated painters who excelled in a male-dominated field, as well as the anonymous women who produced the most precious lace of the time. Their contributions were indispensable to the development of the visual culture of the Low Countries.

Visitors are taken on a thematic trail that explores the intriguing work and lifestyles of these artists. How did status, family and social expectations influence their formation and career choices? Did the women work independently or were they members of larger networks? How did they relate to each other? In addition, Unforgettable attempts to answer a crucial final question: why are these artists relatively unknown today, whereas in their own time they gained so much acclaim? The painters whose works feature include, among others: Judith Leyster, Alida Withoos, Clara Peeters, Johanna Koerten, Rachel Ruysch, Geertruydt Roghman, Anna Maria van Schurman, Maria Faydherbe, Margareta de Heer, Johanna Vergouwen, Josina Margareta Weenix and Maria Sybilla Merian.

For Unforgettable, the MSK is partnering with the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) in Washington D.C., a pioneer in researching and exhibiting historical women artists. The exhibition will first be shown in Washington in autumn 2025, but both venues will tell their own story and will partly feature different works.

In response to the exhibition, the artists Christiane Blattmann, Manon de Boer, Melissa Gordon, Aglaia Konrad, Valérie Mannaerts, Hana Miletić, Annaïk Lou Pitteloud, Heidi Voet, and Asia Zielińska have created an intervention for the museum’s forum room. Together, they developed the collective work X, which articulates their shared position as women artists and their alliance with other artists who were active in these historical periods and social contexts. The names of 179 women artists identified by art historians are hand-printed onto bicolour, corporeal latex sheets and hung in the museum space.