{"id":94046,"date":"2025-12-19T12:35:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T17:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nmwa.org\/?p=94046"},"modified":"2025-12-19T12:35:03","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T17:35:03","slug":"women-artists-from-antwerp-to-amsterdam-choices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmwa.org\/blog\/nmwa-exhibitions\/women-artists-from-antwerp-to-amsterdam-choices\/","title":{"rendered":"Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam: Choices"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Women played a vital role in shaping the visual culture of the Low Countries, present-day Belgium and the Netherlands, during the 17th and early 18th centuries.\u00a0Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam, 1600<\/em>–1750<\/em><\/a> is the first-ever survey exhibition of women artists from this region and time period. Including more than 40 artists, with many works on view in the United States for the first time, it demonstrates that women were an active and consequential part of one of the most robust and dynamic artistic economies of the era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Louise Hollandine, Princess of the Palatinate, Self-Portrait as a Benedictine Nun<\/em>, ca. 1665\u201375; Oil on canvas, 50 1\/2 x 36 5\/8 in.; Private collection, through the mediation of the Hoogsteder Museum Foundation, The Hague; Photo \u00a9 Hoogsteder Museum Foundation, The Hague <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Choices<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The options available to women artists in this period, whether to marry, pursue specialized training, and much more, depended largely on their social class and family connections. While painters tended to come from the middle and upper classes, lower-class women comprised the majority of lacemakers and embroiderers. Middle- and upper-class women could study with professionals to hone their skills. Lower-class girls and women usually had no choice but to work, and many produced textiles, often as domestic workers, in orphanages, or in correctional institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marriage and childbearing also shaped the course of women\u2019s lives, though its effects, again, were dependent on social class: those with the means to hire domestic help were more likely to continue their work, while others found that domestic responsibilities left little time for their art. Some women who joined religious orders or remained unmarried found independence to continue their artistic pursuits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learning by Necessity<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A 17th-century painting from the Maagdenhuis (Maiden\u2019s House), a home for impoverished or orphaned girls in Antwerp, depicts the benefactor and his wife in the foreground, while behind them are scores of girls busy embroidering and making lace. Charitable institutions such as this one provided homes for lower-class and orphaned girls as well as training in skills for work. Lace was a highly expensive commodity, and Flanders was known for producing some of the best.<\/p>\n\n\n\t

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