Fifth anniversary of the Women of the Rijksmuseum research project

Results of the Women of the Rijksmuseum research project

The interdisciplinary Women of the Rijksmuseum team has been working since 2021 to increase the visibility – on a structural basis – of women in the collection and presentation. Curators, educators and researchers have been identifying and documenting stories about and by women, developing them further through new research and presenting them to the public.

Outcomes of the project in the past five years include the annual Women in the Museum symposium, publications such as Geesje & Anna, and exhibitions including Point of View and Women on Paper. The museum has also acquired numerous works by women artists, including Gesina ter Borch, Maria van Oosterwijck, Aleijda Wolfsen, Maria Sibylla Merian, Johanna Koerten, George Sand, Bertha E. Jacques, Thérèse Schwartze, Wilhelmina Drupsteen, Lou Loeber, Marlow Moss, Maria Roosen, Carrie Mae Weems, Evelyn Taocheng Wang and Beppe Kessler.

Since the start of Women of the Rijksmuseum, researchers have studied more than 450 objects and enriched over 200 gallery texts with stories from a female perspective. The project is set to continue for the coming years, with research remaining a core activity, alongside collaborations, public programmes and knowledge exchange.

New painting: Fraction de la réalité by Nicolaas Warb

Fraction de la réalité by Nicolaas Warb will go on display in the Rijksmuseum for the first time on 4 March 2026, following its acquisition and restoration last year. Nicolaas Warb was the pseudonym of Sophia Warburg, who moved from The Netherlands to Paris in 1929. Fascinated as Warb was by geometrical abstract art, she sought to develop her own visual language within this style, creating an interplay between primary colours and straight and curved lines. Fraction de la réalité is one of the artist’s largest paintings, but to her it represented just a ‘fraction of reality’. It features two large triangular fields – one dark blue, one dark yellow – that are separated by crisp lines. To create contrast, Warb also painted a light blue shape that breaks with the geometry; its edges are rounded and the colour is soft.

Public programme in March

Women in the Museum XL: The (Museum's) Future is Female
This fifth edition of the Women in the Museum conference series offers an opportunity to reflect on what we have built together as a museum and academic community, and, most importantly, to consider how gender- and women-focused research can be sustainably anchored in a rapidly changing world. The two-day programme is packed with lectures, panel discussions and workshops.

Keynotes: Angela Saini, journalist and author of The Patriarchs: How Men Came to Rule; and Mark Miller, artist, producer and former Director of Learning at Tate Britain. With workshops by artists Iris de Leeuw and Anouk Beckers, photographer Jonne Lucia, journalists Hendrik Spiering and Mirjam van Zuidam, and others.
9 and 10 March
Regular: €125
Student: €50
Livestream: €27,50

In-Gallery Storytelling by experts from the Women of the Rijksmuseum research project
Every Tuesday and Thursday throughout March at 13:00
Free (admission to the museum is not included)
Starts in the Rijksmuseum’s Grand Hall on the 2nd floor

Workshop: Figure Drawing in the Grand Hall
Draw like the artist Thérèse Schwartze or get inspired by artist’s model Geesje Kwak.
Every Saturday and Sunday from 12:00 to 15:00
Free (admission to the museum is not included)

Lecture: Medusa Looks Back: Women, Power and Myth-Making
With Janina Ramirez, art historian, presenter and author of Femina (2022) and Legenda (2026); and Jacqueline Klooster, professor of Greek literature at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg and author of Medusa in the Mirror (2025).
Sunday 29 March
14:00–15:15
€7.50 (admission to the museum is not included)

Thanks

Women of the Rijksmuseum is made possible in part by CHANEL, the Susi Zijderveld Fund, the Familie Krouwels Fund, the Machteld Vos & Willem Sijthoff Fund, the Heleen Dura-van Oord Fund, the Kind Courage Monique Maarsen Fund, the Familie Staal Fund, the Karin van Leeuwen Fund, the Dreesmann-Beerkens Fund, the Sofronie Foundation, the Linne & Marijn Pijnenborg Fund, the Jolanda Degen Fund, the Lara Timmerman Fund, the Antoinette Rolloos Hueber Fund, the Hendrikje Crebolder Fund, Amy Novogratz and Mike Velings, the Femke Dijkhuis Fund, the Bianca van Galen Fund, the Haboldt-Pianetti Fund, Jenny Reynaerts, the Sandra Swelheim Fund, and the Women of the Rijksmuseum Fund.