The Female Impact

Mark your calendars for the 30th of June and the 1st of July 2025, when we will gather at the Trippenhuis for the culminating symposium of The Female Impact project. This landmark event will showcase four years of research through presentations from our project members and esteemed guest speakers. Alongside engaging discussions, we will offer […]

Long thought to have been purchased by Pieter van Ruijven, Vermeer’s painting “The Lacemaker” was probably acquired by his wife, Maria de Knuijt, who had a much closer relationship with Vermeer. In an interview for Mister Motley and based on new archival documents, Judith Noorman demonstrates that this shifted perspective demands a new interpretation of the painting’s meaning. Read the complete […]

Bringing to light the overlooked role of women in the art supply trade, Marleen Puyenbroek unveiled new research at the recent Women in the Visuals Arts in the Early Modern Low Counties symposium in Den Bosch. In her paper, Marleen revealed a significant correction: a paint store, previously misattributed to Abraham van Bubbeson, was, in fact, managed […]

A lot is known about both Marten and Oopjen from the Rijksmuseum. However, for many other so-called pendant portraits of married couples created in the 17th century, much more is known about the man than about the woman. In the course ‘Women of the Rijksmuseum,’ led by art historian Judith Noorman, students from the UvA […]

For the course “Writing Women Into History”, developed by Judith Noorman and Anna Lawrence, students of the bachelor’s program Global Arts, Culture and Politics have created two podcast episodes. Both episodes focus on the overlooked role of women in history. Read more of listen directly to the podcasts. The course “Writing Women into History” is part of the […]

A unique archival document about the seventeenth-century Northern Netherlands has surfaced in a Belgian family archive. The simple-looking booklet contains a wealth of detailed information about daily life in the seventeenth century as seen through the eyes of one woman: Maria van Nesse. The discovery instantly places Van Nesse among the best-documented people of her […]

In the second episode of Women of the Rijksmuseum, host Cathelijne Blok and curator in training Femke Valkhoff talk about a 17th-century portrait of Maritge Vooght by Frans Hals. It turns out she was quite a famous beer brewer!