Rijksmuseum presents women artists in the Gallery of Honour for the first time
Publication date: 08 March 2021 - 08:00
For the first time in history, the Rijksmuseum is exhibiting work by women artists in the Gallery of Honour. Paintings by Judith Leyster, Gesina ter Borch and Rachel Ruysch will soon be on permanent display among the 17th-century works by Frans Hals, Johannes Vermeer and Rembrandt. This move aims to highlight the underexposure of women in Dutch cultural history.
Women play an important role in the cultural history of the Netherlands. Until now, however, women have been missing from the Rijksmuseum’s Gallery of Honour. It is crucial that we keep examining and enriching the Rijksmuseum’s centuries-old collection from new perspectives. We do so through both research and presentation. By asking new questions and studying a range of sources and objects, we can provide a more complete story of the Netherlands.
Taco Dibbits, Director of the Rijksmuseum
Research programme
The Rijksmuseum recently started a multi-pronged research programme on women’s contribution to Dutch cultural history and their representation in the Rijksmuseum collection. The study aims to establish the number of female artists, investigate their life stories and track down the frequently absent information about women portrayed in art. It also includes a survey of female collectors, patrons, donors and curators that examines how the collection has arisen, and the institutional history of the Rijksmuseum.
The museum is catching up in the field of women’s history. The Rijksmuseum’s permanent exhibition presents a picture of the culture of the Netherlands over the centuries. Remarkably little of this story, however, is told from a female perspective. This is evident both in the composition of the collection and in the lack of documented knowledge of the role of women in Dutch history.
Jenny Reynaerts, curator of 19th-century painting at the Rijksmuseum and chair of the research programme
Podcast en Stories
The Rijksmuseum has lots to say about the women in its collection – for example, in various Rijksmuseum Stories about women in art and history, or in the Rijksmuseum podcast in which Janine Abbring talks (in Dutch) about Gesina ter Borch with curator of drawings Ilona van Tuinen.
The Rijksmuseum will open as soon as it becomes possible. After lockdown, the following works will be on display in the Gallery of Honour:
- The Serenade, 1629. Judith Leyster (1609-1666)
- Memorial Portrait of Moses ter Borch, 1667/1669. Gesina ter Borch (1633-1690) and her brother Gerard ter Borch (1617-1681)
- Still Life with Flowers in a Glass Vase (c. 1690 - c. 1720). Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750),
, Gesina ter Borch, 1667 - 1669.jpg?c=0d6f955c60682e93011ad4d159fa723ed83ac644662a790c8b9d66f480982627){kind=link}
