Already 2025 has much to offer in terms of art museum shows about women artists from the distant past through the present. Here, though, we focus (almost) exclusively on art exhibitions about women artists from the Renaissance to about the mid-20th century. Keep checking back; we will update this page as museums announce new shows.
We list the shows in order by opening date; thus, the list starts with those currently on view. As the exhibitions close, we will move the entries down to the “Past Exhibitions” section.
The Botanical World of Mary Delany
An offering of the British Museum Unseen series, this display encompasses high-resolution photography of some of Mary Delany’s most spectacular works and details the inspiration and drive behind her output, including her original technical process and the legacy she has left. The visually stunning images reveal Delany’s incredible precision in creating scientifically accurate representations of botanical specimens. Visitors are able to explore and appreciate the delicacy and skill that Delany employed, throughout her impressive oeuvre of work, which she only began at the age of 72. Alongside Delany’s “mosaicks,” visitors will encounter new sculptures by Rebecca Stevenson in the Great Hall; interactive origami room designed by York artist Kate Buckley; and abstract photography collages by York St John Fine Art student Amy Martina.
The Botanical World of Mary Delany; Beningbrough. September 10, 2024–March 23, 2025.
Painted Dreams: The Art of Evelyn De Morgan
Painted Dreams revisits an historic 1907 show, reuniting several of Evelyn De Morgan’s most significant works in Wolverhampton. The original exhibition was a remarkable achievement. It challenged Victorian prejudices and the notion that being a professional artist was a male occupation and unsuitable for a woman of De Morgan’s class. Critics lauded her for her ability to layer contemporary issues into mythological tales. One reviewer for the Wolverhampton Express and Star described the pictures as “painted dreams.” By recreating De Morgan’s 1907 solo show as faithfully as possible, Painted Dreams highlights a career that has been historically overshadowed by her male contemporaries. The museum displays 30 artworks in chronological order to show the progression of De Morgan’s talent as an artist. The show presents De Morgan as a pioneering artist. Her exploration of new, challenging subjects delved into the fundamentals of human existence.
Painted Dreams: The Art of Evelyn De Morgan; Wolverhampton Art Gallery. October 19, 2024–March 9, 2025.
Roman Painters: Women artists in Rome between the 16th and 19th centuries
At the center of the exhibition are the many women artists who from the 16th to the 19th century made Rome their place of study and work. The protagonists are artists present in the Capitoline collections, such as Caterina Ginnasi, Maria Felice Tibaldi Subleyras, Angelika Kaufmann, Laura Piranesi, Marianna Candidi Dionigi, Louise Seidler and Emma Gaggiotti Richards. There is also a significant selection of other important artists active in the city. The latter group includes Lavinia Fontana, Artemisia Gentileschi, Maddalena Corvina, Giovanna Garzoni, and many others whose corpus is being reconstructed in the research of recent decades. Through around 130 works, the exhibition itinerary describes the progressive inclusion of female painters in the international market.
Read Alessandra Masu‘s thoughts about the show here.
Roman Painters: Women artists in Rome between the 16th and 19th centuries; Museo di Roma. October 25, 2024–March 23, 2025.
Role Models: Women in the MdbK
The starting point and source of inspiration is the self-portrait of the American Impressionist Lilla Cabot Perry (1848–1933). This painting is on display at the MdbK as part of the Collection-in-Residence programme of the Terra Foundation, Chicago. The exhibition juxtaposes the depiction of female creative artistic work as gainful employment—Cabot Perry contributed significantly to the financial sustenance of her family of five—with different forms of artistic activity by women, each of which was characterized by specific social circumstances. Also among the women artists featured are Rosa Bonheur and Elisabetta Sirani. The presentation carries forward the museum’s critical research initiatives into its own collection history. By taking an unbiased look at the stacks, it reveals insights into works that have been shown seldom, if ever.
Role Models: Women in the MdbK; Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig. November 7, 2024–May 11, 2025.
Dora Carrington: Beyond Bloomsbury
As a significant contributor to Modern British art during the interwar years and an associate of the Bloomsbury Group, Dora Carrington (1893–1932) was described by former Tate Director Sir John Rothenstein as “the most neglected serious painter of her time.” Spanning paintings, drawings and prints from across her career, this exhibition reveals the continued relevance of Carrington’s unconventional life and remarkable work. It forms a powerful portrait of Carrington, exploring her defiance of gender norms and her circle of eminent friends.
Dora Carrington: Beyond Bloomsbury; Pallant House Gallery. November 9, 2024–April 27, 2025.
Rachel Ruysch: Nature into Art
During her lifetime, collectors sought after Rachel Ruysch’s magnificent, deceptively realistic floral still lifes with exotic plants and fruit, butterflies and insects. From November 2024 on the Alte Pinakothek will present the world’s first major monographic exhibition of her work. Discover the wondrous world of Rachel Ruysch between art and science, perfected fine painting and artistic freedom amid illustrious patrons in Amsterdam, Düsseldorf, and Florence. The show is organized in cooperation with the Toledo Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It will be on display at each of these institutions during 2025.
Rachel Ruysch: Nature into Art; Alte Pinakothek, Munich. November 26, 2024–March 16, 2025. The show moves in April 2025 to the Toledo Museum of Art. Then in late August 2025 it will be hosted by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Read the Art Herstory post about the Munich iteration here.
Elles: Jean-Jacques Henner Pupils
Louise Abbéma, the Swiss Ottilie W. Roederstein, Madeleine Smith, Marie Petiet and the Englishwoman Dorothy Tennant… They were painters and students of Jean-Jacques Henner. Some have had emblematic careers; all are still too little known to the general public. Through more than 80 paintings, drawings, letters and photographs, the exhibition Elles: Jean-Jacques Henner Pupils highlights the work and lives of around ten women artists from the second half of the 19th century. The show includes loans from several regional museums as well as Parisian institutions, but also from private collections in France and abroad.
Elles: Jean-Jacques Henner Pupils; Musée Jean-Jacques Henner. November 28, 2024–April 28, 2025.
Luisa Roldán: Escultora real
Luisa Roldán combined excellence, versatility and ability to break gender barriers and reach the top as an artist: she was named sculptor to the king by Charles II, a position she held with Philip V. In addition, she was the first Spanish artist to enter the Academy of San Luca in Rome, a milestone never before achieved by Hispanic sculptors. Roldán is the first female artist to whom the National Sculpture Museum of Valladolid has dedicated an exhibition. The show aims to vindicate the figure of this brilliant Sevillian artist.
Luisa Roldán. Escultora real; Museo Nacional de Escultura. November 29, 2024–March 9, 2025.
Painted with Silk: The Art of Early American Embroidery
From the 1600s until about 1830, the education of American girls emphasized reading, writing, and embroidery. For girls whose families could afford to send them to school, a finely worked embroidery which was worthy of being framed for display in her home served as a kind of diploma. It evidenced both her mastery of an important practical skill and the diligence and self-discipline that society expected of its more privileged members. Painted with Silk features unusually beautiful and well-preserved examples of this inherently fragile art in order to explore the cultural values and norms that schoolgirl embroidery was used to teach. The exhibition also includes contemporary embroideries by the artist Elaine Reichek. In her work, Reichek repurposed the form of the older embroideries in order to expose and criticize the assumptions about gender, class and race that they expressed and reinforced.
Painted with Silk: The Art of Early American Embroidery; Detroit Institute of Arts. December 13, 2024–June 15, 2025.
Suzanne Valadon
This exhibition highlights an exceptional figure, underlining her pioneering role, often underestimated, in the birth of artistic modernity. It reveals the great freedom of Suzanne Valadon, who does not really adhere to any movement, except perhaps her own. The tour of nearly 200 works draws on the wealth of national collections, including the Centre Pompidou, the Musée d’Orsay and the Orangerie. Exceptional loans from New York’s Museum of Modern Art and the Fondation de l’Hermitage and important private collections complete it. It focuses on the artist’s two preferred mediums, drawing and painting.
Suzanne Valadon; Centre Pompidou, January 15–May 26, 2025. Versions of this show were hosted by the Center Pompidou-Metz in 2023, and the Nantes Museum of Arts and the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya in Barcelona in 2024, under the title Suzanne Valadon: A World of One’s Own.
At the Heart of “The Souls”: The Works of Violet Manners, Duchess of Rutland
Violet Manners (1856–1937) was considered the “queen” of “The Souls,” a fashionable aristocratic social circle that favored intellectual pursuits and avant-garde artistic tastes. They gathered like-minded people to them and were known for a while as “The Select” and “The Gang,” until Lord Beresford called them “The Souls” after observing that they sat around talking about each other’s souls. This display in the Print Room features exquisite portraits drawn by Violet Manners of her social and artistic circle. Many of the men and women featured in these intimate drawings would become celebrated personalities of the late Victorian “aesthetic” period.
At the Heart of “The Souls”: The Works of Violet Manners, Duchess of Rutland; Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum. January 21–April 27, 2025.
Emily Carr: Navigating an Impenetrable Landscape
In its design, Emily Carr: Navigating an Impenetrable Landscape draws out the question of the opening and closing-off of space in Carr’s landscapes. It does so by contrasting a densely hung group of paintings with sparsely hung later works that depict an open horizon. This exhibition uses the spatial metaphor of closeness to and distance from nature to probe Carr’s thinking about the forests she painted. It also examines how Carr’s representation of some Indigenous subjects—particularly villages and totem poles set within landscapes—sit in relation to the dense forest and what this might suggest, given the late 19th- and early 20th-century tendency to conflate Indigenous cultures with nature.
Emily Carr: Navigating an Impenetrable Landscape; Les Franciscaines-Deauville. January 25–January 4, 2026.
Julie Manet and her Cousins
Bringing together nearly one hundred exceptional works, this exhibition highlights the artistic and intellectual contribution of Julie Manet, daughter of Berthe Morisot and niece of Édouard Manet, and her cousins Jeannie and Paule Gobillard. The show explores the many facets of these pioneering women artists, who combined freedom and creativity in fields as varied as painting, watercolor, music and writing. This intimate, feminine exploration unveils landmark works, personal letters and rare photographs, in an immersive scenography designed to touch both the mind and the heart.
Julie Manet and her Cousins; Les Franciscaines-Deauville. January 25–May 11, 2025.
Transcending Tradition: Selection of Works from The Bennett Collection of Women Realists
Throughout history, women makers have been transcenders. That is, they step or have stepped beyond tradition and its limitations in order to find success as an artist. Transcending Tradition features artworks from The Bennett Collection, a growing collection of figurative realist paintings by women artists. The Bennett Collection’s founders are San Antonio art collectors Steven Alan Bennett and Dr. Elaine Melotti Schmidt. They gifted 150 paintings to the Muskegon Museum of Art, bolstering its focus on collecting work by women artists, both historical and contemporary. Therefore, this exhibition highlights work by historical women painters—including (but not limited to) Artemesia Gentileschi, Mary Cassatt, Gertrude Abercrombie, Dörte Clara Wolff, and Elaine de Kooning—integrated with the work of contemporary artists such as (to name just a few) Andrea Kowch, Zoey Frank, Harmonia Rosales, and Katie O’Hagan.
Transcending Tradition: Selection of Works from The Bennett Collection of Women Realists; Muskegon Museum of Art. February 6–May 11, 2025.
Blanche Hoschedé-Monet in the Light
Blanche Hoschedé-Monet (1865–1947) was part of a successful network of artists in Giverny, Rouen, and Paris during the first half of the twentieth century. She was recognized for her sophisticated approach to color, composition, and technique. Her family’s move to Giverny in 1883 prompted her to take up painting in earnest. With Monet as her mentor, she developed a distinct style that favored carefully framed points of view and landscapes painted en plein air. As the first monographic exhibition of her work in the United States, Blanche Hoschedé-Monet in the Light brings together over forty paintings which attest to Hoschedé-Monet’s unique vision and ambitions as an artist in her own right. The exhibition and accompanying catalog constitute a definitive account of Hoschedé-Monet’s life and art.
Blanche Hoschedé-Monet in the Light; Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art. February 14–May 15, 2025.
From Africville: The Paintings of Edith MacDonald-Brown (1886–1954)
This exhibition celebrates the artistic legacy of underrecognized African Nova Scotian painter Edith MacDonald-Brown. It features nine of thirteen known oil paintings that highlight MacDonald-Brown’s mature talent at such a young age. This exhibition honors MacDonald-Brown’s talent and contributes to the broader narrative of African Nova Scotian artistry. Explore her remarkable work and the rich cultural heritage she represents in Canadian art history. The show’s curator, David Woods, has dedicated significant efforts to uncovering MacDonald-Brown’s oeuvre and has collaborated with her descendants and MSVU Art Gallery to ensure the preservation of her art. The conservation efforts, completed in the Fall of 2024, have restored these works for future generations.
From Africville: The Paintings of Edith MacDonald-Brown (1886–1954); Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery. February 15–April 26, 2025.
Helen McNicoll: An Impressionist Journey
In the early 1900s, when women from well-to-do backgrounds were often confined to family and domestic life, Canadian Impressionist Helen McNicoll stood out for her love of travel and the discovery of new spaces. Helen McNicoll. An Impressionist Journey, the first Québec retrospective in a century of the Canadian impressionist painter’s work, presents more than 65 paintings by the artist, 25 of them from the Pierre Lassonde collection. Through the prism of travel, the exhibition examines the themes of female independence, risk-taking, friendship, and freedom for women in the stimulating context of the struggle by English suffragettes to win the right to vote.
Helen McNicoll: An Impressionist Journey; Art Gallery of Hamilton. February 15–May 25, 2025.
Harriet Backer: Every Atom is Color
Harriet Backer (1845–1932) was one of Norway’s most significant artists. Highly acclaimed for her rich, luminous use of color, Backer created an eminently personal style that blends interior scenes and open-air painting. She drew inspiration from the realist movement as well as from the innovations of Impressionism, with free brushstrokes and meticulous attention to variations in light. She is also famous for her tender portraits of rural life and her interest in church interiors. Backer’s early ambition was to become a portrait painter. Although today she is best known for her interiors and landscapes, she continued to paint portraits throughout her career. A number of these can be seen in the exhibition, including her only self-portrait.
Harriet Backer: Every Atom is Colour; Kode Bergen Art Museum. February 19–August 23, 2025. The show is co-organized with Nationalmuseum in Oslo, where a version of the show appeared in autumn 2023; Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, where it appeared in spring/summer 2024; and Musée d’Orsay in Paris, where it appeared in autumn 2024.
Käthe Kollwitz: Visions of Solidarity and Resilience
As a leading printmaker of the twentieth century, German artist Käthe Kollwitz advocated for social change through her images of grief, poverty, uprising, and the effects of war. Käthe Kollwitz: Visions of Solidarity and Resilience examines the life, artwork, and technical skill of Kollwitz through the IMA’s diverse range of prints by the artist, spanning the early and later years of her work. Inspired by events from Germany’s past as well as her own experiences with loss and political turmoil during World Wars I and II, Kollwitz’s compelling subject matter continues to appeal to audiences of today through her expressive style and mastery of printmaking.
Käthe Kollwitz: Visions of Solidarity and Resilience; Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields. February 21–August 3, 2025.
Artemisia: Héroïne de l’art
Through around forty paintings, this show brings together recognized masterpieces by the artist. The exhibition includes paintings of recent attribution, or paintings rarely shown outside their usual place of conservation. It highlights the role of Artemisia Gentileschi in the history of 17th-century art. Artemisia: Héroïne de l’art aims in particular to demonstrate the profound originality of her work, her journey and her identity, which still remain a source of inspiration and fascination today. The story of Artemisia spans the centuries. And the reading that we can make of her work—a reflection of her experience and her resilience—proves timeless and universal.
Artemisia: Héroïne de l’art; Musée Jacquemart-André. March 19–August 3, 2025.
Evelyn De Morgan: The Modern Painter in Victorian London
This exhibition introduces Evelyn De Morgan as an artist, offering insights into her artistic process and technique. It then delves into her developing career and focusing on her engagement with cultural events in London. The organizers display studies that she made while studying at the Slade School of Art in her late teens alongside paintings from her exhibitions at Grosvenor Gallery, New Gallery, and Fine Art Society. The exhibition also includes a series of paintings made in response to the horrors of the First World War, which De Morgan exhibited in 1916 to raise money for the Red Cross.
Evelyn De Morgan: The Modern Painter in Victorian London; Guildhall Art Gallery. April 4, 2025–January 4, 2026.
May Morris: Art & Advocacy
On loan from The William Morris Society, this show explores the wide-ranging talents and accomplishments of May Morris, the younger daughter of Arts & Craft designer William Morris. The exhibition includes May’s original designs for embroidery and wallpapers for Morris & Co., and showcases May’s considerable achievements, including her tremendous efforts in establishing the Women’s Guild of Arts. The exhibition shines a light on May’s individual talent in both craft and design and her achievements in enabling women artists and crafts makers to fully engage in the artistic community, giving her the recognition she richly deserves.
May Morris: Art & Advocacy; Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum. April 5–October 5, 2025.
Mainie Jellett & Evie Hone: The Art of Friendship
Dedicated to the pioneering Irish modernists Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone, this exhibition brings together 90 of their works of art. It explores their friendship and shared experiences while studying in Paris during the early 1920s, and traces their careers back to Ireland. The exhibition highlights the early convergences and later divergences in their styles as they developed distinct artistic voices. Featuring paintings, stained glass, and preparatory drawings, it reveals how both women were trailblazers in Irish art although remaining connected to conventional themes such as religion and landscape.
Mainie Jellett & Evie Hone: The Art of Friendship; National Gallery of Ireland. April 10–August 10, 2025.
Rachel Ruysch: Nature into Art
During her lifetime, collectors sought after Rachel Ruysch’s magnificent, deceptively realistic floral still lifes with exotic plants and fruit, butterflies and insects. At a time when society placed limits on women’s access to careers as professional artist, Ruysch nevertheless became highly successful and widely renowned. Despite the great success she experienced during her lifetime, the art world has never accorded Ruysch the attention she deserves. The Toledo Museum of Art’s exhibition brings together her most important works from European and American public and private collections, including new discoveries and other works on public exhibition for the first time.
Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750): Nature into Art; Toledo Museum of Art. April 13–July 27, 2025. The show was previously on view at Alte Pinakothek, Munich. In late August 2025 it moves to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Angelika Kauffmann and Fashion
“Clothes make the man.” As a sought-after portrait painter who designed the public image of numerous personalities of her time, Angelika Kauffman (1741–1807) understood this well. She knew how to capture the whole essence of the sitters, but also demonstrated a great sense for fashion trends. Anyone painted by her could be sure to appear in the latest look from head to toe. For example, she preferred to dress noble ladies of English society in flowing, wide robes “à la Turque” and thus contributed to the spread of this style. Using original paintings, drawings, prints and textile exhibits, the exhibition highlights fashion at the transition from Rococo to Classicism. It presents Angelika Kauffmann as a painter whose paintings influenced art and fashion in equal measure.
Angelika Kauffmann and Fashion; Das Angelika Kauffmann Museum, Schwarzenberg. May 1–November 2, 2025.
Emily Cole: Ceramics, Flora, and Contemporary Responses
This exhibition illuminates the life and work of Emily Cole (1843–1913), a critically acclaimed professional artist and daughter of Hudson River School painter Thomas Cole. A lifelong resident of the historic property, she exhibited and sold her work in New York City and beyond and was a founding member of the New York Society of Ceramic Arts. The exhibition will include the largest display of original painted porcelain and works on paper by Emily. Throughout the site, internationally celebrated contemporary artists—Ann Agee, Jacqueline Bishop, Francesca DiMattio, Valerie Hegarty, Courtney M. Leonard (Shinnecock), Jiha Moon, Michelle Sound (Cree and Métis, Member of Wapsewsipi Swan River First Nation), and Stephanie Syjuco, among others—present work in response to Emily Cole. Spanning painting, ceramics, sculpture, installation, and photography, the show celebrates Emily Cole and also the enduring importance of the natural world, flora, ceramic arts, and women’s labor.
Emily Cole: Ceramics, Flora, and Contemporary Responses; Thomas Cole National Historic Site. May 3–November 2, 2025.
Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind the Flowers
In the spring and summer of 1919 and 1920, during a period of intense engagement with nature, artist Hilma af Klint drew flowers almost every day. “I will try,” she wrote, “to grasp the flowers of the earth.” This exhibition focuses on a recently discovered portfolio of drawings. It is filled with jewel-toned watercolors made by a keen-eyed naturalist, attuned to the rhythms and bounty of the blooming season. Breaking with traditional botanical art, af Klint juxtaposed her exquisitely rendered blossoms with precisely drawn diagrams. Putting representation and abstraction, close looking and envisioning, art and botany into dialogue, af Klint’s drawings recognize the interconnectedness of all living things.
Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind the Flowers; The Museum of Modern Art. May 11–September 27, 2025.
Artemisia’s Strong Women: Rescuing a Masterpiece
In 2020, a massive explosion in the port of Beirut devastated the city. Among the wreckage was a previously unknown painting by Artemisia Gentileschi, the most celebrated woman painter of 17th-century Italy. Depicting a scene from the Greek myth of Hercules, the severely damaged painting came to Getty for in-depth conservation treatment. In a focused installation concentrating on its repair, the restored painting is accompanied by three of Gentileschi’s other paintings, highlighting her special focus on donne forti (strong women) from the classical and Biblical traditions.
Artemisia’s Strong Women: Rescuing a Masterpiece; The Getty Museum. June 10–September 14, 2025.
Hanna Hirsch Pauli: The Art of Being Free
The first-ever comprehensive monographic exhibition of Hanna Hirsch Pauli’s work draws on new research and sensational archival findings. The exhibition features more than 120 artworks, which span a period of over 60 years. They range from famous paintings created during Hirsch Pauli’s breakthrough period in the 1880s, to symbolist landscapes, intimate portrayals of her family, interior scenes depicting the artist’s powerful network of women, and self-portraits created at the end of her life.
Hanna Hirsch Pauli: The Art of Being Free; Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. June 19, 2025–January 11, 2026.
In the Time of Camille Claudel: Being a Sculptress in Paris
Camille Claudel and her work have been the subject of numerous monographic exhibitions, but rarely has attention been given to her artistic and cultural milieu. In particular, women artists who followed a similar path remain largely unknown. Through this project, the Musée Camille Claudel, the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours, and the Musée de Pont-Aven aim to bring these figures out of obscurity, showcasing the original creations of exceptional women sculptors—atelier companions, friends, or rivals of Camille Claudel—who shared her vivid imagination and undeniable talent. Alongside the sculptors’ works, their painted or photographic portraits in their studios and letters exchanged between Camille Claudel and her peers will bring to life the network of female artists known to Claudel during her career.
In the Time of Camille Claudel: Being a Sculptress in Paris; Musée Camille Claudel. September 13, 2025–January 4, 2026.
Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam, 1500–1750
Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam, 1600–1750 showcases a broad range of work by more than 40 Dutch and Flemish women artists, including Gesina ter Borch, Maria Faydherbe, Anna Maria de Koker, Judith Leyster, Magdalena van de Passe, Clara Peeters, Rachel Ruysch, Maria Tassaert, Jeanne Vergouwen, Michaelina Wautier, and more. Presenting an array of paintings, lace, prints, paper cuttings, embroidery, and sculpture, this exhibition draws on recent scholarship to demonstrate that a full view of women’s contributions to the artistic economy is essential to understanding Dutch and Flemish visual culture of the period. The show is organized in partnership with the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent, Belgium.
Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam, 1600–1750; National Museum of Women in the Arts. September 26, 2025–January 11, 2026. The Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent will host this exhibition as Unforgettable: Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam, 1600–1750 from March 7–May 31, 2026.
A Feast of Fruit and Flowers: Women Still Life Painters of the Seventeenth Century and Beyond
Still-life painting emerged as a recognized genre in seventeenth-century Europe. Subjects ranged from artfully composed floral arrangements to tables brimming with food.Many of the leading still life painters were women. At a time when there were restrictions on women in terms of the subjects they were able to paint, still life was an acceptable genre, and could be done in the privacy of one’s home. A Feast of Fruit and Flowers explores the important role women artists played in the development of the genre. The exhibition features loans from museums from across the US. It includes about 20 paintings by a variety of artists, among them Fede Galizia, Clara Peeters, Maria Sibylla Merian, and Rachel Ruysch. The show concludes with an epilogue of more modern examples of still life painting, demonstrating that the genre continued to resonate with women artists over time, and evolved to reflect changing eras.
A Feast of Fruit and Flowers: Women Still Life Painters of the Seventeenth Century and Beyond; The Hyde Collection. October 25, 2025–March 8, 2026.
Michaelina Wautier: Painter
The Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna is dedicating its fall exhibition 2025 to Michaelina Wautier, who is regarded as one of the foremost female artists of the 17th century. The exhibition offers visitors the opportunity to discover almost the entire oeuvre of this outstanding artist alongside works by contemporaries such as Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck.
Michaelina Wautier: Painter; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. September 30, 2025–January 25, 2026.
Anna Ancher
Influenced by her travels to Paris, as well as French Impressionism, Anna Ancher (1859–1935) produced vivid interiors and evocative landscape scenes in which light becomes the central figure. She is widely celebrated in her homeland yet remains relatively unknown to British audiences. The first major exhibition in the UK dedicated to the artist brings together recently discovered paintings from Ancher’s home. They are on view alongside an extensive body of work made throughout the artist’s long career. Overall the exhibition features more than 40 of her paintings. Anna Ancher demonstrates the painter’s bold approach to color and radical interpretation of everyday scenes as a truly pioneering modern painter.
Anna Ancher; Dulwich Picture Gallery. November 4, 2025–March 8, 2026.
Remember: we will be adding entries to this list as art museums announce new 2025 shows! Keep checking back …
Past Exhibitions
Rosa Bonheur et les Fauves
The Château de Rosa Bonheur presents an unprecedented immersion in the artistic universe of a woman who knew how to capture the soul of lions, tigers and leopards. This fascinating retrospective brings together rare oils, drawings, prints and photographs. Some of the objects, from private collections, have never before revealed to the public. Organizers structure the exhibition around several sections of Rosa Bonheur’s work. It first explores the artist’s creative process, from her preliminary studies to the final creation of her works, including her relationships with tamers and her scientific approach to animal ethology. Finally, it reveals Bonheur’s intimate universe, where the artist engages in careful observation of the daily life of wild animals.
Rosa Bonheur et les Fauves; Le Château de Rosa Bonheur. October 19, 2024–January 31, 2025.
Anything but Simple: Gift Drawings and the Shaker Aesthetic
Anything but Simple: Gift Drawings and the Shaker Aesthetic, showcases the Shakers, a group often celebrated for their minimalist approach to design. Shaker women artists of the mid-19th-century made the works; they were believed to represent divine messages. The “gift” drawings on display represent a departure from the simplicity typically associated with Shaker material culture. The drawings are accompanied by biographical information on the women who made them. The context enriches visitors’ experience of these stunning objects with contextual understanding of their historical and spiritual meanings.
Anything but Simple: Gift Drawings and the Shaker Aesthetic; American Folk Art Museum. September 13, 2024–January 26, 2025.
