Allegorical Portrait of an Artist in Her Studio

Artist Michiel van Musscher Dutch, b. 1645, Rotterdam; d. 1705, Amsterdam

Datecirca 1675–1685

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions45 x 35 7/8 in. (114.3 x 91.1 cm)
Frame: 53 3/4 x 44 3/4 in. (136.5 x 113.7 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineGift of Armand and Victor Hammer

Object numberG.57.10.1

On View

On view

ProvenanceCreated Amsterdam, ca. 1675–1685. [Probably sale, Paris, February 10, 1809, no. 40]. The Right Honorable Lewis Fry (1832–1931), Bristol, England (by 1904); [his sale, Christie’s, London, March 31, 1922, no. 105, as Constantine Netscher, Portrait of Rachel Ruysch]; to Lee. Possibly Comte de Ganay, Paris; [Christie’s, London, March 28, 1923, no. 153, as Constantine Netscher, Portrait of Rachel Ruysch]; [M. R. Schweitzer Gallery, London and New York, by 1952]; [Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, January 27, 1954, no 20, as Netscher]; [Hammer Galleries, New York, by 1956]; given to NCMA, 1957 (as Rachel Ruysch).Published References“Catalogue of pictures by old masters, the property of the Rt. Hon. Lewis Fry,
deceased; late of Goldney House, Clifton Hill, Bristol (sold by order of the Executors)...,” (auction catalogue) (London: Christie, Manon & Woods, March 31, 1922), lot 105, as Portrait of Rachel Ruysch by Constantine Netscher.

"Catalogue of a Few Pictures & Drawings," (auction catalogue) (London: Christie, Manson & Woods, March 28, 1923), lot 153, as Portrait of Rachel Ruysch by C. Netscher.

"Notable Works of Art on the Market," Burlington Magazine 94 (December, 1952), illus. pl. 9, as Portrait of Dutch Flower Painter, Rachel Ruysch by Netscher.

H. Comstock, "The Connoisseur in America," Connoisseur 131 (1953), 137-38.

“Renaissance Dutch and Flemish XVII Century Paintings,” (auction catalogue) (New York: Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., January 27, 1954), no. 635 as Rachel Ruysch in Her Studio by C. Netscher.

State Given Valuable Painting, Raleigh: News & Observer, March 10, 1957.

W. R. Valentiner, "Allegorical Portrait of Rachel Ruysch," North Carolina Museum of Art Bulletin 1, no. 2 (Summer 1957), 5, 7-8; listed in "Registrar's Report of New Acquisitions," 24, illus. (b-w) 4 (as by Constantin Netscher).

Five Hundred Years of Flowers and Gardens in Western Art (exhibition catalogue) (Jacksonville, FL: Cummer Gallery of Art, 1962), cat. no. 7 (as by Netscher).

F[aber] Birren, History of Color in Painting (New York: Reinhold Publishing Corp., 1965), illus. 12.

Franz Rademacher, "Ein holländisches Brunnenmodell des 17 Jahrhunderts," Festschrift für Herbert von Einem (Berlin, 1965), 207-08, illus. pl. 45, fig. 2.

W[illiam] H. Gerdts and R[ussell] Burke, American Still Life Painting (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1971), 59, illus. 62, no 5-1.

Women (exhibition catalogue) (Winston-Salem: Salem College, 1972), mentioned x, illus. ix, fig. 3 (as by Netscher).

Eleanor Tufts, Our Hidden Heritage: Five Centuries of Women Artists (New York: Paddington Press, 1974), 99-101, illus. fig. 5.

Mitchell Beazely, The Dictionary of Painting and Sculpture, Art and Artists, The Mitchell Beazely Library of Art, Vol. 4 (London: Mitchell Beazely Publishers, 1981), illus. 159.

Edgar Peters Bowron, ed., Introduction to the Collections (Chapel Hill: published for the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, by The University of North Carolina Press, 1983), illus. (b-w) 114 (as by Constantijn Netscher).

Susan Donahue Kuretsky, "Het schilderen van bloemen in de 117 de eeuw," Flora en Pictura, Kunstschrift openbaar Kunsbezit 3 (May/June 1987), 84, illus. cover.

National Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington, DC) (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1987), illus. 27.

Nancy G. Heller, Women Artists: An Illustrated History (New York: Abbeville Press, 1987), illus. 41, fig. 23.

Robert P. Maccubbin and Martha Hamilton-Phillips, eds., The Age of William III and Mary II: Power, Politics and Patronage, 1688-1702. (Ref. enc. and exh. cat.) (Williamsburg, VA: The College of William and Mary, 1989), cat. no. 336 (NCMA painting not in exhibitions in New York, The Grolier Club or in Washington, DC, The Folger Shakespeare Library.)

Ingvar Bergström, Still Lifes of the Golden Age (exhibition catalogue), Arthur K. Wheelock, ed. (Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1989), cat. no. 13, illus.

Haboldt & Co., John T. Spike, Elvire Perego, and Evelyne Saez, Portrait de l'artiste, images des peintres 1600-1890: catalogue de tableaux et dessins ancience et de photographies du XIXème siecle (Paris: The Company, 1991), illus. as "L'Apothéose", 87, fig. 1., details figs. 3, 4, 5, and 6.

Introduction to the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1992), illus. (b-w) 107.

"'Picture Within a Picture' on View," North Carolina Museum of Art Preview (Summer 1994), 21-22, illus. (b-w) 22.

Faces of the Golden Age: Seventeenth Century Dutch Portrait, The Yamaguchi Museum of Prefectural Art, 1994 (Catalogue and English Supplement, The Hague: Rijkdienst Beeldende Kunst, 1994), catalogue: illus. 113 & 140; English supplement, 65-66. (Catalogue only, not in show.)

Leen Huet and Jan Grieten, Oude meesteressen: Vrouwelijke kunstnaars in de Nederlanden (Leuven: Uitgeverij Van Halewyck, 1998), 198, 223 (as by Constantijn Netscher), illus. (color) cover.

Frances Borzello, Seeing Ourselves: Women's Self-Portraits (London: Thames & Hudson, 1998), illus. 57.

Therese M. Southgate, MD., "The Cover," JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association 280, no. 14 (October 14, 1998), discussed 1210, illus. (color) cover.

Eric Jan Sluijter, Vermeer, Fame, and Female Beauty: The Art of Painting (Washington, D.C., 1998) 270, illus. fig. 4.

Dennis Weller, entry for Allegorical Portrait of an Artist, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, Rebecca Martin Nagy, ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1998), 112, illus. (color), detail (color) 113.

Arthur K. Wheelock, From Botany to Bouquets: Flowers in Northern Art (exhibition catalogue) (Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1999), 72, 74, illus. (color) 73 (as Allegorical Portrait of an Artist, Probably Rachel Ruysch). Also in Dutch Cabinet Galleries (catalogue insert), unnumbered page, illus. (color) fig. 7.

E. de Jongh, "Exit Rachel," Kunstschrift (January/February 2000), 32, illus. (color) 33.

Lili-Ann Berg, "Allegory of a Painter," Paper posted at http://www.newcastle.edu.au/department/fad/fi/berg/berg.htm (copyright © Lili-Ann Berg and The University of Newcastle, 2000), 1-6 of 6, illus. (color) 1, detail (color) 3, available from berg@nru.com.au; INTERNET.

Eric Jan Sluijter, "Vele Vermaerde Ende Treffelicke Schilders," in Geschiedenis van Holland: 1572 tot 1795, Vol. 2, Thimo de Nijs and Eelco Beukers, eds. (Hilversum: Uitgeverij Verloren, 2002), 410, illus. (b-w).

Preview: The Magazine of the North Carolina Museum of Art (March/April 2004), illus. (color) 7.

Dennis P. Weller, “Seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish Paintings in Raleigh,” Codart (Winter 2009), mentioned and illus. 12.

Dennis P. Weller, Seventeenth-Century Dutch and Flemish Paintings [Systematic Catalogue of the Collection] (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2009), cat. no. 30, illus. (color) 135, also mentioned xi.

Dennis P. Weller, entry for Allegorical Portrait of an Artist in Her Studio, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2010), 238, illus. (color) 239.

Wanda M. Corn, Women Building History: Public Art at the 1893 Columbian Exposition (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2011), 141, illus. (b-w) 143, fig. 97.

Robert E. Gerhardt and Francis Griep, The Wealth of the Golden Age (exhibition catalogue) (Zwolle: WBooks for the Museum van Loon, Amsterdam, 2012), mentioned 74 (catalogue only, not in exhibition).

Robert E. Gerhardt, “The Drawings of Michiel van Musscher (1645–1705) in Master Drawings 56, no. 2 (Summer 2018), mentioned 206, illus. (color) 207, fig. 25.

Martha Moffitt Peacock, "The Maid of Holland and Her Heroic Heriesses," in Sarah Moran and Amanda Pipkin, eds., Women and Gender in the Early Modern Low Countries (Leiden: Brill, 2019), 116, illus. (color), fig. 3.25, as Allegorical Portrait of an Artist (probably Rachel Ruysch).

Sam Segal and Klara Alen, Dutch and Flemish Flower Pieces: Paintings, Drawings and Prints up to the Nineteenth Century, Vol. 1 (Leiden: Koninklijke NV, 2020), briefly discussed 516, illus. (color) 517, fig. 8.90.

Exhibition HistoryLondon, Whitechapel Art Gallery, "Dutch Exhibition," 1904; Bristol, 1906 (?).

London, Whitechapel Art Gallery, "Flower Paintings," 1906, cat. no. 6.

Jacksonville, FL, Cummer Art Gallery, "Five Hundred Years of Flowers and Gardens in Western Art," October 17-November 25, 1962, cat. no. 7.

Birmingham, AL, Birmingham Museum of Art, "Dutch and Flemish Painting," April 15-May 10, 1966, cat. no. 20,

Winston-Salem, NC, Salem Fine Arts Center, "Women," February 27-March 19, 1972; Raleigh, NCMA, March 25-April 20, 1972, mentioned x, illus. ix, fig. 3.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "Dutch Art in the Age of Rembrandt," October 25, 1986-February 15, 1987.

Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art, "Still Lifes of the Golden Age," May 14-September 14, 1989; Boston, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, October 18-December 31, 1989, cat. no. 13, illus.

Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art, "From Botany to Bouquets: Flowers in Northern Art," January 31-May 31, 1999, 72, 74, illus. (color) 73 (as Allegorical Portrait of an Artist, Probably Rachel Ruysch). Also in Dutch Cabinet Galleries (catalogue insert), unnumbered page, illus. (color) fig. 7.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, “Miracle on Morgan Street: The Foundations of the NCMA, 1946–1960,” September 16, 2020–April 11, 2021.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "PARTICIPATE: Activate the Senses," December 18, 2021-July 2, 2022.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," January 25, 2023–November 27, 2023.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," June 17, 2024-present. Object Rights Statement

The North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) makes images of its collection available online to support research and scholarship and to inform and educate the public. Certain works of art, as well as the photographs of those works of art, may be protected by copyright, trademark, or related interests not owned by the NCMA. The responsibility for ascertaining whether any such rights exist and for obtaining all other necessary permissions remains with the applicant. To request images and/or permissions from the NCMA, please complete our online request form.