Ghent Museum Showcases Over 40 Forgotten Women Artists from 17th-18th Century Netherlands

The Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent presents "Inoubliables," an exhibition spotlighting more than forty women artists active between 1600 and 1750 in the Spanish Netherlands and the Dutch Republic. Featuring over 150 works, the show challenges the male-dominated narrative of Flemish and Dutch Golden Age art. These artists worked across painting, sculpture, engraving, and textiles, contributing significantly to cultural hubs like Antwerp and Amsterdam. Despite contemporary recognition, many were later erased due to sexist prejudices, systematic misattribution, and the devaluation of applied arts. Key figures include Michaelina Wautier (1604-1689), who tackled historical and mythological scenes in Brussels, and Judith Leyster (1609-1660), a Haarlem guild member whose works were wrongly credited to men. Catharina van Hemessen (1527-1567) pioneered the artist self-portrait at an easel. The exhibition highlights how these women used self-portraiture to assert their professional status, as seen in works by Leyster, Wautier, and Louise-Hollandine of the Palatinate (1622-1709). Their obscurity was compounded by their exclusion from 19th and 20th-century art historical texts. A recent restitution movement includes retrospectives for Clara Peeters at the Prado in 2016 and for Wautier at London's Royal Academy. The exhibition runs until May 31, 2026, at the Museum of Fine Arts Ghent, located at Fernand Scribedreef 1, 9000 Gent, Belgium.