The Female Impact

Judith Noorman contributed an essay to Campaspe Talks Back. Women Who Made a Difference in Early Modern Art (eds. Lieke van Deinsen, Bert Schepers, Marjan Sterckx, Hans Vlieghe, Bert Watteeuw). The book book pays homage to prof. dr. Katlijne Van der Stighelen who recently retired at Leuven University. Judith’s essay is about women dollmakers and about dolls as social signifiers. Title: Judith Noorman, ‘Elck heeft sijn eijgen…

Femke Valkhoff, a former intern of The Female Impact, has won the DZE Thesis Prize from the Seventeenth Century Studies Group (Werkgroep De Zeventiende Eeuw) for her master’s thesis ‘Out of the Shadows,’ which explores the role of Haarlem brewers within their family, the brewery, and as art buyers for the household. Her thesis supervisor was…

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…

Since 2021, we have been studying the impact of women artists, patrons, and other prominent women on the seventeenth-century Dutch art market. What are our latest insights? And which hurdles lie ahead? During our annual summer event at SPUI25, short presentations covering a wide range of topics will showed where the Female Impact stands today.…

Our research team will present new research results in various sessions at the Historians of Netherlandish Art (HNA) Conference, taking place in London and Cambridge from the 10th to the 13th of July 2024:

During her internship at Museum Prinsenhof Delft, Iris Jocker contributed to increasing the visibility of women in the museum. In addition to the portrait of Hugo de Groot, his wife Maria van Reigersberch is now also on display. She played a significant role in his legendary escape: when Hugo was sentenced to life imprisonment at…

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…

At the study day of the Stichting Het Nederlandse Interieur (SHNI), Piet Bakker spoke about our research into women as consumers of paintings. Not only female, but also male art buyers are difficult to identify in archival records. In estate inventories, ownership of paintings is always attributed to “the household” rather than “the man” or “the…

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…

The Vermeer exhibition at the Rijksmuseum has had no shortage of publicity. Despite the wave of publicity, interesting new insights into Vermeer and his clients have remained underexposed. The Rijksmuseum catalogue claims that Vermeer’s main buyer was not a man, but a woman. As a guest of Stephan Komduur on Radio 1, Judith Noorman explained…

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…

For the summer edition of Oud Holland Reviews, Sarah Joan Moran (Utrecht University) gives her take on Gouden vrouwen. This book is the result of a class devised and created by Judith Noorman, on women artists, collectors and patrons in the seventeenth-century Low Countries. The book was created in collaboration with her students from that class.…

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!

As a guest at the table of Eva Jinek, Judith Noorman discussed our research project ‘the Female Impact.’ Do you already know ‘the incredibly tough’ Anna van Ewsum? Watch the interview to hear about her and more powerful women in the art world of the seventeenth century. Watch the show here.