Judith Leyster : “Self-Portrait” (c. 1630)

Judith Leyster numbers among the many women artists whose contributions have been unfairly obscured. A cheerful genre painter, she was well-respected during her lifetime, but after her death her entire oeuvre was reattributed to her contemporary, Frans Hals. The record was not set straight until 1893, when The Jolly Companions entered the market. Billed as one of Hals’ “finest paintings,” it bore a forged signature that, when detected, led to the revelation of Leyster’s monogram. Under such scandalous circumstances, however, her rediscovery prompted more lawsuits than fanfare. “At no time,” writes feminist author Germaine Greer, “did anyone throw his cap in the air and rejoice that another painter, capable of equaling Hals at his best, had been discovered.”

Her artful self-portrait leaves little doubt as to her talent or charisma. It may have served as her presentation piece to the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke, to which she was admitted as its second female member. The National Gallery notes the juxtaposition of “her hand holding a brush with the hand and bow of the violin player” comparing “the art of creating ephemeral music with the art of creating timeless paintings.”