Women’s contributions to society are often unseen and seldom considered in art. Many women’s names and their stories have long since been forgotten. Using French, German, Italian, Spanish and Dutch works on paper, the exhibition looks behind the allegorical scenes to shed light on women’s work in the 18th century, including toiling in the fields, caring for children and performing manual labour.

The small thematic exhibition presents 25 French, German, Italian, Spanish and Dutch prints from the 16th to 18th centuries preserved in the Kupferstichkabinett’s (Museum of Prints and Drawings) rich holdings. Works have been selected that show women in everyday activities, working as peasants, farmhands, teachers, maids, midwives and courtesans. One focus provide insight into the professions practised by women, including attending to births as midwives; another shows those areas of society where men and women went about their daily tasks side by side (as equals?). Beneath the allegorical layers of meaning, the viewer often discovers self-confident women going about their lives, yet the hardship of everyday travail is evident. To this day, so-called care work for children and the elderly receives little recognition; efforts are being made to reconcile work and family life and to achieve equality between women and men, including in financial matters, but these goals have yet to be fully attained.

At the same time, it becomes clear that many of the depictions displayed were created by men – Albrecht Dürer, Lucas Cranach, and Rembrandt – to name just a few. Their (male) view of women characterised societal perspectives for centuries. Also represented, however, are two women artists, Louise Magdeleine Horthemels (1686–1767) and Marguerite Ponce (1745–1800), who earned their livings creating art.

The concise exhibition is the Kupferstichkabinett’s contribution to Women’s Month in March, as well as to Equal Pay Day (7 Märch) and Labour Day (1 May in Europe).