With a selection of 150 works by Sofonisba Anguissola, Angelika Kauffmann, Judith Leyster and Marietta Robusti (La Tintoretta) among others, the exhibition traces the careers of 30 outstanding women artists from the 16th to the 18th century.
For the first time, the family context in which these women artists pursued their careers is addressed and made visible through juxtaposition with works by their fathers, brothers, husbands and fellow painters. Today often forgotten, female artists of their time were able to achieve extraordinary success in a wide variety of family constellations. They became court painters, teachers, entrepreneurs, and even publishers and were awarded the highest honors.
In the early modern period it was not altogether impossible for women to pursue careers as artists, but it was definitely outside the norm and therefore always subject to special challenges. A conspicuous number of women artists of this period came from or married into artistic families. They worked for their fathers, brothers, and husbands, and often in secret.
