Rachel Ruysch Flower Still Life Display Toledo Museum of Art Toledo
Thoughts on an important focus exhibition
There are even so a couple of weeks in which to run into "Women Artists of the Dutch Golden Historic period" at the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA). If yous alive in the DC area, or if you lot visit the surface area over the holidays, brand a betoken of seeing this jewel of a show before it closes on January 5.
This showroom highlights an of import truth: not simply did women in the seventeenth- and early on eighteenth-century Netherlands do fine art, but some of them were highly successful professional person artists. As the exhibition brochure states, "Considered individually, the stories of the women represented in this exhibition demonstrate that in that location was not just ane path to becoming an artist, nor was there only i model for success." The brandish besides clarifies the connections among the women, some of whom knew each other, and even worked together.
Equally a focus exhibition, the show is compact. It comprises some 20 works, and is contained inside a single room. (I peculiarly appreciate that the walls are painted in the same shade of electric pinkish as Art Herstory's accent colour.) Most of the objects on display—from still life and genre paintings to botanical illustration to engravings—are from NMWA's own collection, though a couple of paintings, and a book, are there on loan.
Paintings
Judith Leyster
Judith Leyster, ane of the first women to be admitted to the Saint Luke'south Guild of Haarlem, is best known for her portraits and genre scenes, though she likewise painted some still lifes. Until recently, it was assumed there was only one Judith Leyster self-portrait all the same extant—her immature self-portrait from 1633, held at the National Gallery of Fine art in Washington, DC. But in 2016, the auction house Christie's discovered a previously unknown self-portrait of Leyster. In this "new" self-portrait from c. 1653, she is considerably older and more sedately dressed, but she all the same portrays herself with the tools of her merchandise: paint brushes and a palette.
Now in a private collection, this painting is one of the few loaned objects in the exhibition. It is something of a coup for NMWA to exist able include this work in the bear witness. For me, it was a particular thrill to see it "in person." I am grateful to the owner for sharing it with a wider public.
The other Leyster work on display, The Concert, is held in NMWA'southward permanent collection. The information card accompanying the picture speculates that the adult female at the center of the picture might be the artist herself, in nonetheless another self-portrait. The figure on the correct might be a portrait of Leyster'due south futurity married man, artist Jan Miense Molenaer.
Rachel Ruysch
The daughter of an eminent Dutch professor of beefcake and botany, Rachel Ruysch became i of the most successful flower painters of the Dutch Golden Historic period. Since she was trained in scientific observation equally well equally in painting, collectors prized her works for their high caste of verisimilitude. Her however lifes seethe with life in the course of insects and butterflies.
Like Leyster, Ruysch married an artist, Juriaen Pool. Apparently unlike Leyster, notwithstanding, even as a wife and mother (of xi children), she continued to piece of work every bit a professional artist, producing hundreds of paintings. Many of them are still held in museum and private collections today. Her works are amid the larger-calibration paintings in the exhibition. The Ruysch work pictured above anchors the back wall; view the second Ruysch painting in the showroom here.
Alida Withoos
Artist Mathias Withoos trained his children, including his daughter Alida, to produce still lifes and botanical illustrations. The ii Alida Withoos paintings in this show arebosstilleven—wood yet lives—a genre in which her father specialized. See also A Notwithstanding Life with Roses, Daisies, an Iris, and other Flowers on a Forest Floor, ca. 1700.
The exhibition brochure mentions that fine art patron and botanist Agnes Block (1629–1704) commissioned Alida Withoos to pigment some of Block's plants. The brochure as well tells us that in 1694, the Hortus Botanicus (a botanical garden even so in being today in Amsterdam) hired Withoos to make drawings of thirteen of its plants. Some of Withoos' botanical drawings—which may or may not relate to either of the commissions mentioned in a higher place—are held in New York, at the Met and the Morgan Library.
Clara Peeters
The simply Flemish woman known to have specialized in still-life painting as early on as the first decade of the seventeenth century, Clara Peeters is a pioneer among women artists. A few years agone, she was the subject area of the Prado's offset exhibition to focus exclusively on a female artist (The Fine art of Clara Peeters, Winter 2016/17). The present show at NMWA includes two still lifes by Peeters: the glorious floral painting beneath ("a saccharide feast," as it is described in a 1635 inventory), and Nonetheless Life of Fish and Cat.
Maria Schalcken
Information technology is articulate from mentions of her works in eighteenth-century inventories that in her twenty-four hours, Maria Schalcken was a successful and sought-after artist. However, today simply 3 surviving paintings are attributed to her. (One of these, a lovely self-portrait in the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection, destined for the Museum of Fine Arts-Boston, features on an Fine art Herstory notation card. The original is on view until Jan 12 in a special exhibition at the St. Louis Fine art Museum.) Co-ordinate to the NMWA data card, many of Schalcken'south works were misattributed—sometimes purposefully—as having been painted past her brother, Godfried Schalcken. It is possible that some at present misattributed works may someday be reattributed to this creative person. The Schalcken work included in the NMWA exhibition, Boy Offering Grapes to a Woman, is on loan from The Leiden Drove.
Botanical Illustrations/ Engravings
Maria Sibylla Merian
Maria Sibylla Merian was one of the get-go European naturalists to represent insects from direct observation, rather than from preserved specimens. Her illustrations are notable for considering the life cycles of insects, including representations of the plants that establish each insect'due south food source and/or habitat. In 1699, unusually for a woman—especially for 1 unaccompanied by a male companion—she undertook a journeying to Surinam, then a Dutch colony, to written report insects in their natural habitat. The present exhibition includes a prepare of hand-colored engravings on paper from her posthumously published volumeDissertation in Insect Generations and Metamorphoses in Surinam (second edition).
In Merian's books, she writes nearly the uses and properties of plants. Much of this information she gleaned from local women in Suriname, including African women and women of the Carib and Arawak tribes, some of whom were enslaved to Europeans, including Merian.
Anna Maria van Schurman
A polymath, Anna Maria van Schurman was the commencement woman to nourish academy in the Netherlands. She was acclaimed as a poet and a scholar. She was also, co-ordinate to her NMWA artist profile, "a prolific creative person in a variety of mediums, including painting, engraving, calligraphy, and paper cut."
Van Schurman is the just not-professional among the women artists represented in this show, which includes (on loan) one of van Schurman'due south book publications. She is connected in diverse ways with other artists represented in the exhibition:
- In i of the few known early examples of the training of one woman artist by another, Magdalena van de Passe instructed van Schurman in the art of etching.
- Though their membership did not overlap in time, both Anna Maria van Schurman and Maria Sibylla Merian belonged to a Labadist community in kingdom of the netherlands.
Magdalena van de Passe
A fellow member of the Van de Passe family of artists from Cologne, who were agile in the Northern Netherlands, Magdalena van de Passe was a Dutch engraver. Similar her siblings—2 brothers and a sister—she assisted her father with his engraving projects. She signed her first works at the historic period of 14. She specialized in landscapes, of which the evidence includes an example, and too portraits.
A Timely Focus on Female Old Masters
The CODART Catechism
Interestingly, the timing of the publication of the CODART Canon overlaps with NMWA's presentation of Women Artists of the Dutch Aureate Historic period. In mid-Dec, curator-members of CODART (the clan of curators of Dutch and Flemish fine art), informed past a public vote, published a list of 100 Dutch and Flemish works they deem to be "masterpieces." The Canon includes works by v women artists, including 4 of the artists represented in the NMWA exhibit:
- Judith Leyster, Male child Playing the Flute, 1630 (Nationalmuseum, Stockholm)
- Clara Peeters,Nonetheless Life with Cheeses, Almonds and Pretzels, ca. 1615, Mauritshuis, The Hague
- Rachel Ruysch,Flower Still Life, 1726, Toledo Museum of Fine art; and
- Maria Sibylla Merian,Pomegranate and Menelaus Blueish Morpho Butterfly, 1702–1703, The Majestic Drove Trust, London
The other woman artist represented in the Canon is Geertruydt Roghman (Household Tasks, Rijksmuseum). During 2020, CODART plans to add more information almost the artworks included in the Canon on its website. Information technology volition exist interesting to meet the extent and nature of CODART'south ruminations on the representation of women in the list.
Current and Upcoming Exhibitions almost Female Quondam Masters
In terms of putting a spotlight on female Sometime Masters, the NMWA show complements and counter-balances some high-contour current and imminent exhibitions focusing on Italian, rather than Dutch, women artists:
- The Prado'southward electric current exhibition, A Tale of Two Women Painters (on until February 2, 2020), highlights the lives and works of female One-time Masters Sofonisba Anguissola and Lavinia Fontana;
- "The Greatness of the Universe" in the Art of Giovanna Garzoni, an Uffizi Spring 2020 exhibit, showcases an artist whose oeuvre ranges widely across genres and media;
- Opening in April 2020, London's National Gallery presents Artemisia, the first solo exhibition in the UK of the works of Artemisia Gentileschi;
- Castello del Buonconsiglio in Milan is the site of Fede Galizia: Amazzone nella Pittura, July-Oct 2020, the beginning-ever solo exhibition for this artist;
- And from December 2020, Le Signore del Baroccoat Milan's Palazzo Reale celebrates the creativity of women artists such as Artemisia Gentileschi, Elisabetta Sirani, Lavinia Fontana, Sofonisba Anguissola, and Fede Galizia.
The listing of 2020 museum exhibitions focusing on history's women artists continues to grow. For the updated list, see Upcoming Museum Exhibitions Featuring Paintings past Female Former Masters.
Determination
As I said at the start of this post, Women Artists of the Dutch Golden Historic period is a gem of an exhibition. The intimacy of the display makes information technology easy to take in the similarities and differences among this grouping of artists, and to empathise how some of the women were connected to one another.
But seeing this one jewel has whet my appetite for the whole crown. The time seems correct for an expanded version of this show. Dr. Virginia Treanor, the curator of the electric current exhibition, has ambitions to develop a large-scale exhibition on the topic, to present multiple works by these—and other—female Erstwhile Masters of the early on modern Depression Countries. I hope that institutions and collectors will support the thought with loans of their works, and that we will be treated in the not-too-distant time to come to a one thousand-scale exhibition of the wonderful work of Dutch and Flemish women artists.
And While You Are in the NMWA Building…
At this moment in time, museums around the world are agonizing about gender imbalance in their collections. Some are fifty-fifty taking radical activity on this front. (The Baltimore Art Museum's decision to larn only works by women in 2020 has generated significant media attending, including this NPR article.)
Simply of course NMWA doesn't have to worry about the underrepresentation of works by women in its drove. From its inception, NMWA has causedonly works by women! Then while you lot are at that place, take advantage of the opportunity to run into these special exhibitions: Live Dangerously and Judy Chicago: The End are on display until January 20. Also, don't miss the run a risk to relish the museum's permanent collection, which features works by many other female person Old Masters, including, merely not limited to, Sofonisba Anguissola, Louise Moillon, Lavinia Fontana, Elisabetta Sirani, and Angelica Kauffman.
Read the reviews of NMWA'south Women Artists of the Dutch Gilt Age in Smithsonian Magazine and The Wall Street Periodical.
More exhibition reviews from the Art Herstory blog:
In defense of monographic exhibitions of female artists: The case of Fede Galizia, by Camille Nouhant
The Ladies of Fine art are in Milan, by Dr. Cecilia Gamberini
"Artemisia" at the National Gallery: A Review, by Dr. Sheila McTighe
"La grandezza del universo" nell'arte di Giovanna Garzoni / "The grandeur of the universe" in the art of Giovanna Garzoni, by Dr. Sara Matthews-Grieco
Warp and Weft: Women equally Custodians of Jewish Heritage in Italian republic, by Dr. Anastazja Buttitta
A Tale of Ii Women Painters, by Natasha Moura
Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists, past Dr. Elizabeth Sutton
'Bright Souls': A London Exhibition Celebrating Mary Beale, Joan Carlile, and Anne Killigrew, by Dr. Laura Gowing
You might also savor these Art Herstory blog posts:
A Clara Peeters for the Mauritshuis, by Dr. Quentin Buvelot
Floral Nonetheless Life, 1726—A Masterpiece by Rachel Ruysch, by Dr. Lawrence West. Nichols
Gesina ter Borch: Artist, not Amateur, by Dr. Nicole E. Cook
The Protofeminist Insects of Giovanna Garzoni and Maria Sibylla Merian, past Prof. Emma Steinkraus
Why Do Old Mistresses Matter Today?, by Dr. Merry Wiesner-Hanks
Judith Leyster, Leading Star
Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750)
An Interview with Carrie Callaghan, Author of "A Light of Her Own" (a novel in which Judith Leyster features as a protagonist)
Source: https://artherstory.net/women-artists-of-the-dutch-golden-age-exhibit-at-nmwa/
0 Response to "Rachel Ruysch Flower Still Life Display Toledo Museum of Art Toledo"
Post a Comment