First Person Singular by Wendy Braitman

filed in What Gets Me Through the Day

The Talented (and almost forgotten) Judith Leyster

June 23, 2009 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

The 17th century Dutch painter, Judith Leyster, is not a household name. An exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., on the occasion of her 400th birthday, is one measure to remedy that.

Judith Leyster lived and worked in Haarlem, and was renowned in her day. In 1633, she was granted membership to the prestigious painters’ Guild, one of only two women admitted in the whole of the 17th century. Yet since her death in 1660, she had mostly been forgotten. In the 1970’s as a graduate student, Frima Fox Hofrichter, now Professor of Art and Design at Pratt University, rediscovered Leyster, and it is owing to her considerable scholarship and detective work, that we know as much as we do today.

Much of Leyster’s work was originally attributed to the other masters of her time, especially Frans Hal. She married a painter, Jan Miense Molenaer, who was more prolific and more documented, though hardly as talented. As with so many accomplished women throughout history (before nannies, day care and stay-at-home Dads), Leyster’s career diminished after marriage and motherhood. Judith Leyster, 1609-1660, runs through November 29, 2009.

Painting: Self Portrait, 1630

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