Art historian and curator Cynthia Osiecki made a remarkable discovery in a storage room at an Oslo museum in 2022. Osiecki, who had been researching Clara Peeters, a pioneering 17th-century Flemish Baroque artist, stumbled upon an unattributed still-life painting and suspected it could be Peeters’ work.
Osiecki expressed astonishment at the possibility of finding a Clara Peeters painting within the museum’s own collection, especially while actively seeking to acquire works by female artists. She highlighted the underappreciated status of Peeters and other female artists of her time.
The National Museum of Norway is shining a light on historic female artists with the upcoming exhibition Woman Painter, featuring works by 19 female artists, including Clara Peeters, Judith Leyster, and other prominent figures.
Uncovering the True Artist
The painting Osiecki found, titled Still Life with Small Game and Grapes on a Gilded Tazza, was initially attributed to Ambrosius Brueghel before being reclassified as anonymous and stored away. Through meticulous research spanning years, Osiecki successfully reattributed the painting to Clara Peeters.
Peeters’ unique style involved embedding self-portraits in reflective surfaces within her paintings, symbolizing her presence and professional identity in a male-dominated artistic landscape. The Oslo painting, depicting dead birds, hazelnuts, and apricots, presented distinctive elements characteristic of Peeters’ work.
Despite challenges like woodworm damage obscuring Peeters’ signature, Osiecki’s dedication and collaboration with colleagues led to the painting’s confirmation as a Peeters original.
Nora Ceciliedatter, from the National Museum of Norway, emphasized the importance of exhibitions like Woman Painter in recognizing historically marginalized artistic voices.
This rediscovery underscores the ongoing need to uncover and acknowledge female artists whose contributions have been undervalued or overlooked, according to Osiecki.
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