Louise Moillon, A market stall with a young woman giving a basket of grapes to an older woman, ca. 1630; Oil on canvas, 48 1/4 x 66 3/8 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay

Through the summer of 2023, the BMA is displaying ten works from the National Museum of Women in the Art’s (NMWA) permanent collection while NMWA renovates its building in Washington, DC. The current interpolation of NMWA’s holdings into the BMA galleries shows the important intervention of correcting art histories, building upon recent successful initiatives by the BMA as it continues to acquire and foreground women artists.

Highlighting women artists throughout history is work that the National Museum of Women in the Arts has done since its founding in 1981 by Wilhelmina Cole Holladay and her husband Wallace. Now temporarily closed for renovations, NMWA has partnered with the BMA for Collection on the Move, displaying works by women in the arts, from 1610–1910.

One of the ten artists on display, Clara Peeters is often considered the inspiration for Holladay to collect women artists from earlier periods. The Flemish painter’s exquisite rendering of a bouquet of flowers, a still life masterpiece of the Dutch Golden Age is on display in the Jacobs Galleries. Bright, lush, and full of life, the work is incredibly dynamic for an intimate still life.

Clara Peeters, A Still Life of Lilies, Roses, Iris, Pansies, Columbine, Love-in-a-Mist, Larkspur and Other Flowers in a Glass Vase on a Table Top, Flanked by a Rose and a Carnation, 1610; Oil on wood panel, 19 1/2 x 13 1/4 x 2 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay; Photo by Lee Stalsworth

Also in the Jacobs Galleries, visitors may see paintings by Louise Moillon, Mary Beale, Adélaïde Labille Guiard, and Rosa Bonheur, juxtaposed with male contemporaries including Van Dyck, Rembrandt, and Fragonard. Labille Guiard and Beale both offer compelling portraits of women sitters; Moillon creates a market scene between two women–one older and one younger, an allegory of age, beauty, and fertility; and Bonheur deftly depicts the heaths and sheep of the Scottish Highlands. Two silversmiths–Alice Sheene who crafted a beer mug and Mary Anne Croswell who designed an ornate baby rattle–join their ranks, showing their craftsmanship while creating works of beauty and utility for upper-class families.

In loose brushstrokes and vivid colors, Berthe Morisot’s still life of a birdcage filled with feathered friends and a nearby decorative bowl of citrus fruits and flowers brightens the celebrated Cone Collection, located across the Antioch Court.

Berthe Morisot. The Cage. 1885. Oil on canvas. Collection of National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay, on extended loan to the Baltimore Museum of Art

Lilla Cabot Perry’s and Jennie Augusta Brownscombe’s sentimental paintings of young women add their sense of romance and longing to the American Wing, to the left of the Antioch Court.

“The paintings by Lilla Cabot Perry and Jennie Augusta Brownscombe on view in the American Wing show the important influence of Japanese art on American art of the period (in the case of Perry) and the entrepreneurial roles of women artists (in the case of Brownscombe),” shares Curator of American Art Virginia Anderson. “NMWA’s two works complement other works in the same gallery by American women artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries: The New Model by Rosalie Gill and our recently-acquired, small sculpted bookend by Meta Warrick Fuller.”

Together, the ten works augment BMA’s collections of women artists, while challenging the convention of male-dominated art history.

Where to Find the Works

To find all ten works from NMWA on extended loan to the BMA, please consult the following map.

Jacobs Galleries (European Art) 

1. Louise Moillon. A market stall with a young woman giving a basket of grapes to an older woman. c. 1630. Oil on canvas. Collection of National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay, on extended loan to the Baltimore Museum of Art

2. Attributed to Mary Ann Croswell. George III Child’s Rattle. 1808. Silver, coral. Collection of National Museum of Women in ihe Arts, Washington, D.C., silver collection assembled by Nancy Valentine, purchased with funds donated by Mr. and Mrs. Oliver R. Grace and Family, on extended loan to the Baltimore Museum of Art

3. Alice Sheene. Queen Anne Tankard with Cover. 1706. Britannia Standard Silver. Collection of National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., Silver collection assembled by Nancy Valentine, purchased with funds donated by Mr. and Mrs. Oliver R. Grace and family, on extended loan to the Baltimore Museum of Art

4. Adélaïde Labille-Guiard. Portrait of a Woman (Presumed Portrait of the Marquise de Lafayette). 1793–1794. Oil on canvas. Collection of National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay, on extended loan to the Baltimore Museum of Art

5. Mary Beale. Portrait of a Woman with a Black Hood. c. 1660. Oil on canvas. Collection of National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., bequest of John N. and Dorothy C. Estabrook, on extended loan to the Baltimore Museum of Art

6. Rosa Bonheur. Sheep by the Sea. 1865. Oil on cradled panel. Collection of  National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., Gift of  Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay, on extended loan to the Baltimore Museum of Art

7. Clara Peeters. A Still Life of Lilies, Roses, Iris, Pansies, Columbine, Love-in-a-Mist, Larkspur and Other Flowers in a Glass Vase on a Table Top, Flanked by a Rose and a Carnation. 1610. Oil on wood panel. Collection  of  National  Museum  of  Women in  the Arts,  Washington,  D.C.,  Gift of Wilhelmina  Holladay,  on extended  loan to the Baltimore Museum of Art 

Cone Wing

8. Berthe Morisot. The Cage. 1885. Oil on canvas. Collection of National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay, on extended loan to the Baltimore Museum of Art

American Art

9. Lilla Cabot Perry. Lady With a Bowl of Violets. c. 1910. Oil on canvas. Collection of National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay, on extended loan to the Baltimore Museum of Art

10. Jennie Augusta Brownscombe. Love’s Young Dream. 1887. Oil on canvas. Collection  of  National  Museum  of  Women  in  the  Arts, Washington,  D.C.,  Gift  of  Wallace  and  Wilhelmina  Holladay, on  extended  loan  to  the  Baltimore  Museum  of  Art