Coba Ritsema. Oog voor kleur

In a time when only one in five artists was female, the paintings and pastel drawings by Coba Ritsema enjoyed great success in the Netherlands and abroad.

Her portraits and still lifes garnered much renown around the turn of the 20th century, mainly due to her stunning and harmonious colour palettes. She sadly faded from public memory after her passing. In 2026, we’ll mark the 150th anniversary of her birth in Haarlem and the passing of 75 years since the Frans Hals Museum organised her grand anniversary exhibition. It’s the ideal time to bring this star artist from Haarlem back into the limelight.