D.C. Exhibit of Dutch Women Artists

Nov 24, 2025

The National Museum of Women in the Arts, in Washington, D.C., has an exhibit of 40 long-forgotten Dutch and Flemish women artists from the 1600s. The exhibit titled “Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam, 1600–1750,” is a collection of paintings, lace, prints, paper cuttings, embroidery, and sculpture.

During this period, colonial exploitation and the international slave trade enriched Europe’s upper and middle classes, fueling the demand for art and other luxuries.

Some of the artists were professional portraitists, even while raising large families. Some did illustrations documenting the natural world, which was important in the pre-camera time period. Wealthier women had more time and opportunities to create art. But also, women who were born into families who specialized in certain kinds of art, like printmaking, took up the family trade.

Poor and working-class girls and women toiled making some of the most expensive lace of the day. They worked in large institutions like orphanages and prisons.

While these women’s skills were clearly respected during their lifetimes by people who could afford to buy their work, most of them were later written out of history for hundreds of years. Sometimes their works were falsely attributed to men. Maybe that is why this period is associated only with men like Rembrandt and Vermeer.

This exhibit gives a sense of the rise of capitalism and an appreciation of these great women artists.

The museum is open during the shutdown and is free on the first Sunday of each month. The exhibit runs through January 11, 2026.