The gallery of honour in the heart of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, has recently welcomed an impressive painting to its walls: Vanitas still life (Figs.1 and 2) by Maria van Oosterwijck (1630–93). In a compelling sense the artist has long had a place in galleries of honour, as works by her were acquired by Emperor Leopold I, Louis XIV of France and Cosimo III de’ Medici of Tuscany. The Rijksmuseum’s new painting and its prominent and public placement are, however, indicative of a major curatorial realignment that has occurred over recent years: the ambition to rediscover the achievements of women artists and highlight their forgotten histories through research, purchases and displays.[1] 

It has now become something of an annual tradition that such enrichments to collections are celebrated on or near International Women’s Day (8th March). For example, earlier this year, at the same time the Rijksmuseum drew attention to its acquisition, the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, announced its purchase of a gouache by the Glaswegian artist Olive Carleton Smyth, the Courtauld Gallery, London, noted its acquisition of a print by Mary Cassatt and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco heralded its purchase of paintings by Angelica Kauffmann. The move to secure such works by museums has been paralleled by a concerted attempt on the part of art dealers and auction houses to source them – an increasingly challenging task because of a finite supply – and to benefit from the concomitant rise in their values. This development must be seen in the wider context of a market that, by all measures, still places higher prices on the work of major historic and living male artists when they are sold to institutions or private collectors. 

Van Oosterwijck worked in Delft, Utrecht and Amsterdam and enjoyed an international reputation, although she was not a prolific artist. Her striking and rare still life, which includes the witty conceit of a skull and sunflower staring at each other, explores the transitory nature of human achievements and reputations. This seems today to be an especially resonant theme in view of the contribution that the painting now makes to broader efforts to return historic women artists to mainstream discourse. 

It was acquired by the Rijksmuseum in 2023 from a private collection for €1.3 million, conserved before being exhibited and displayed just before a symposium that formed part of the wider ‘Women of the Rijksmuseum Research Project’. This initiative, which has been underway since 2021, has resulted in publications, exhibitions and support for acquisitions. Other major collections have been hosting comparable endeavours over the last decade: examples include projects in the National Portrait Gallery, London (Reframing Narratives: Women in Portraiture); in the National Gallery, London (Women and the Arts Forum); and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (Know My Name). Last year’s exhibition Now You See Us, Women Artists in Britain 1520–1920 at Tate Britain was perhaps the most conspicuous and successful expression in the United Kingdom to date of this long overdue and perception-changing trend.

[1] See, for example, the exhibition Rachel Ruysch: Nature into Art, reviewed by Anna C. Koldeweij in this Magazine, 167 (2025), pp.393–96.