• Skip to main content

Historians of Netherlandish Art

  • News
  • Resources
    • HNA Initiatives
    • HNA Resources
  • About HNA
    • Membership
    • Contact Us
    • Support HNA
Search:
Member Login:

Lost your password?

Log in

Not a member? Join Now
Our Websites:
Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art HNA Reviews

Historians of Netherlandish Art

Menu
  • All News
  • HNA News
  • Personalia
  • Exhibitions
  • Museum News
  • Opportunities
  • HNA Conference
September 18, 2022 - December 31, 2022

Exhibition: Exchanging Words: Women and Letters in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting

Timken Museum of Art, San Diego, CA, United States

Women and letters feature prominently in Dutch genre paintings from the second half of the seventeenth century. Captivating images show women reading, writing, and receiving letters, often in the company of books, and exchanging ideas with present or absent companions. Although the contents of these missives are rarely legible, they invite curiosity and contemplation, drawing the beholder into intimate, domestic spaces. Such scenes emphasize women’s engagement with the written word and demonstrate a remarkable interest in representing their intellectual lives.

The popularity of epistolary themes in Dutch genre painting reflected a rise in the use of personal correspondence—particularly in the exchange of love letters—among the Dutch upper classes in this period, as well as advances in the postal system and the publication of letter-writing manuals. Rather than situating these scenes exclusively within the tradition of amorous correspondence, however, this exhibition explores how an exceptional group of eight genre paintings by Gabriel Metsu (1629–1667), Frans van Mieris (1635–1681), and Gerrit Dou (1613–1675) contributed to—and challenged—various societal ideas surrounding women’s education, literacy, and learning. Drawn from the Timken Museum of Art and The Leiden Collection, these works display a striking modernity in their representation of women, showing them as active participants in a wider cultural sphere.

Exchanging Words is curated by Lara Yeager-Crasselt, The Leiden Collection.

Gabriel Metsu (1629–1667), Elegant Lady Writing at Her Desk, 1662-64
The Leiden Collection, New York.

[text via Codart.nl]

 

Published on September 10, 2022

  • News
  • Resources
    • HNA Initiatives
    • HNA Resources
  • About HNA
    • Membership
    • Contact Us
    • Support HNA
  • Become a Member
  • Member Login
Search:
Join our Mailing List:
Visit our Facebook page
Follow us on Twitter
Follow us on Instagram
© 2023 · Historians of Netherlandish Art. All Rights Reserved. · Terms of Use
Design by Studio Rainwater