Rachel Stewart

Rachel Stewart graduated with honors from Suffolk University with a B.A. in Art History and a minor in History. During her undergraduate course work, Rachel also interned and volunteered at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) in the Art of Europe Department, which eventually transferred into a Temporary Department Coordinator position, also in Art of Europe, after graduating. Rachel’s interest in 17th century Dutch art stems from a passion for Rembrandt early in her journey into art history, and her research on the Van Otterloo and Weatherbie collections gift to the MFA in 2017. Her undergraduate thesis was on Bouquet of Flowers on a Ledge by Balthasar van der Ast, now in the collection of the MFA, and how it could relate to works by Ambrosius Bosschaert. Rachel’s dream exhibition would unite Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait at the National Gallery of Art with Mark Rothko’s Self-Portrait inspired by it.

When not in class, Rachel works at the BU Art Gallery as a Graduate Assistant and enjoys going to knit-night at the Brookline Booksmiths where she crochets garments for family and friends. Rachel is originally from Virginia (Washington D.C. area) and is currently living in Brookline with her Shetland sheepdog Oliver.

Research Interests:
– Seventeenth Century Dutch Art
– Early Seventeenth Century Floral Still Lives
– Textile and Fiber Art

MA Paper:
“Renowned to Moré: Ambrosius Bosschaert and Flower Still Life in the Context of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Globalization”