For centuries, women artists in Europe who achieved professional artistic careers were deemed anomalous or exceptional, while those who engaged in creative pursuits in the home were dismissed as amateurs. Making Her Mark: A History of Women Artists in Europe, 1400-1800, co-organized by the Baltimore Museum of Art and Art Gallery of Ontario, brings together more than 200 objects that dispel the myth that women artists were rare or less talented than their male counterparts and demonstrates the many ways women played an integral role in the development of art, culture, and commerce across more than 400 years. The exhibition includes acclaimed practitioners such as Rosalba Carriera, Artemisia Gentileschi, Elisabeth Louise Vigée-LeBrun, Judith Leyster, Luisa Roldán, and Rachel Ruysch, as well as those by lesser-known professional and amateur artists and often unnamed makers in collectives, workshops, and manufactories. The breadth of women’s artistic endeavors is explored with works that range from royal portraits and devotional sculpture to tapestries, printed books, drawings, clothing and lace, metalwork, ceramics, furniture, and other decorative objects—arguing for a reassessment of European art history to incorporate the true depth and variety of their contributions.
Among the exhibition highlights are Luisa Roldán’s terracotta Education of the Virgin (1689–1706), Artemisia Gentileschi’s painting Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes (c. 1623–25), and a luxurious 17th-century tapestry produced in the papal Barberini workshop in Rome under the direction of Maria Maddalena della Riviera. Beautiful still life paintings by Anne Vallayer-Coster and Josefa de Ayala graced the homes of the well-to-do, and an 18th-century wooden cabinet with paper filigree and hairwork panels by the sisters-in-law Sophia Jane Maria Bonnell and Mary Anne Harvey Bonnell represents their shared creativity in the domestic setting. Images of flora and fauna by Maria Sibylla Merian, Rachel Ruysch, and Pauline Rifer de Courcelles (Madame Knip) illustrate women artists’ involvement in the documentation of global natural phenomena through still life painting, natural illustration, and ceramic production. Self-portraits by Sarah Biffin and Judith Leyster, an elaborate porcelain tea service by Marie-Victorie Jaquotot, textiles by Anna Maria Garthwaite, and an exquisite marble sculpture of a Maltese dog by Anne Seymour Damer demonstrate women’s engagement with the business of making art through self-promotion and professional accomplishment.
Making Her Mark is co-curated by Andaleeb Badiee Banta, Senior Curator and Department Head of Prints, Drawings & Photographs at the BMA, and Alexa Greist, Curator and R. Fraser Elliott Chair, Prints & Drawings at the AGO. It is presented in Baltimore from October 1, 2023, to January 7, 2024, and in Toronto from March 27 to July 1, 2024. The fully illustrated catalog is an important re-examination of pre-modern European art by an international team of scholars and curators who address the critical concepts that have shaped Western culture’s understanding of what constitutes great art. In addition to its recalibration of gender imbalances in the narrative of art history, the 264-page volume also sheds light on the collaborative nature of women’s creativity and the interconnected histories of politics, religion, science, and economics.
