The Ghent fine arts museum, the MSK, is staging the first retrospective exhibition of female artists from the Low Countries during “the long 17th century”. These are women who have often been unjustly forgotten. This painful gap in art history is being filled with almost 150 works by 40 female artists, from floral still lifes to historical scenes, from (self) portraits to sculptures and delicate lace work.
Ghent fine arts museum MSK puts female artists from the 17th and 18th centuries in the spotlight
Colin Clapson
Published:
Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Sir Anthony Van Dyck, everyone knows those names, but did they also have female colleagues working in the arts of their day? Yes, they did. So why don't we know them? Answers can be found at the new exhibition “Unforgettable” at the MSK in Ghent.
On the way to the museum, slogans already try to get visitors excited: “Once silenced, never forgotten”, “Not a footnote, but a chapter” or “The old 'masters' were also women".
Finding female artists is not that easy, says curator Frederica Van Dam. ‘We spent three years combing through literature, diving into archives and visiting many collections. In museums, we found quite a few women in storage. The same was true of private collections, which are less accessible.’ The result is the first retrospective exhibition of work by female artists from the Low Countries between 1600 and 1750, the long 17th century.
Some names ring a bell. Michaelina Wautier from Brussels was “rediscovered” and exhibited a few years ago. Clara Peeters is known as “the Queen of Still Life”: delicate ensembles with flowers, fruit, cheese or seafood. Her face is reflected in the lid of a jug. ‘She devised and developed new compositions with her studio, so that they could be produced on a larger scale and given their own 'Peeters look’.
‘Many female artists proudly portrayed themselves sitting at their easels, palette in hand. They made themselves visible and claimed their craftsmanship,’ explains curator Frederica Van Dam. A striking example is the Dutch artist Judith Leyster (pictured top).
Signature on a statue of Christ
Maria Faydherbe from Mechelen, a niece of sculptor Lucas Faydherbe, also demanded her place in the sun. Several small sculptures by her are on display in the exhibition, including a crucified Christ. Maria confidently signed her name on the back, on his loincloth. ‘Of course, she was immediately accused of arrogance because she made herself heard and deviated from the norm.’
She did not have much respect for her male colleagues, whom she called ‘mass producers’.
Why have these women been forgotten?
Many of these female artists enjoyed praise and prestige in their own day. How is it that they have since been forgotten and need to be “rediscovered”? There are many reasons for this, curator Van Dam explains. Sometimes works of art by women are not signed. 'Numerous are the works signed by men, but women certainly played an active role in the studio. Each painter's studio had to have a “signature”, which was that of the father or brother of the family. Only when a patriarch like the pater familias died could women sometimes use under their own names.'
The genres in which they specialised were also less popular in the market place over the course of history. In Ghent, there are quite a few floral still lifes on display, something that as a cliché was linked to women and which was also looked down upon for a long time.
Women's art disappeared into private collections or museum depots. The result: out of sight, out of mind. The exhibition brings many of these women out of obscurity: Rachel Ruysch, Louise Hollandine van de Palts, Maria Schalcken: “new” names to be discovered.
It is also important to include not only the “fine arts”, but also the applied arts, a field in which women excelled. The exhibition features beautiful lacework from our regions, from tablecloths to collars and fans.
Papercutting is also highly valued. Take, for example, the work of Johanna Koerten, who received commissions from all kinds of foreign monarchs, including the Tsar of the Russias.
Flora and fauna in Suriname
At the intersection of science and art, the work of Maria Sibylla Merian, a German woman who ended up in the Netherlands, shines brightly. Together with her daughter she took the boat to Suriname in South America to draw the local flora and fauna with astonishing, colourful precision.
Anna Roemers Visscher: poetry and much more
Networking is timeless. Anna Roemers Visscher, for example, maintained intellectual connections with other artists and writers. A large “berkenmeyer” or a traditional drinking glass with a wide, flared bowl and a thick, hollow stem covered in small bumps called "prunts", engraved with her motto, “Genoech is meer als veel” (Enough is more than plenty), is on display.
Anna Roemers Visscher was a writer. She expanded “Sinnepoppen”, a collection of poems by her father, with illustrations. That 1620 edition was the first to feature the name of a female author on the title page of a secular literary work. Since last year “Sinnepoppen” features in the canon of Dutch literature.
The MSK presents an important overview of unjustly forgotten female artists as a supplement to classical art history, says curator Frederica Van Dam. She hopes that this exhibition will stimulate new research. The life and work of each of these women deserves a biography or exhibition in its own right.
Contemporary artists
In addition to the female Old Masters, at the MSK you are welcomed by a monumental work by a collective of contemporary female artists from Belgium and abroad. They have hung enormous latex strips from the ceiling, bearing the names of 179 of their predecessors.
Practical information: ‘Unforgettable. Female artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam’ runs from Saturday 7 March to Sunday 31 May 2026 at the MSK in Ghent.