Judith Leyster: Women in Art History

Judith Leyster, Self portrait, c 1630

Judith Leyster entered into the Saint Luke’s Guild of Haarlem as an independent master in 1633.  As a master in her own right, a rarity for a female artist at the time, Leyster established her own workshop and had paying students.

Baptized on this day in 1609, Dutch painter Judith Leyster was remarkable.

As a woman living in the seventeenth century, Leyster was a successful artist who liked to paint energetic scenes, had her own studio and taught several students. Leyster’s career flourished prior to her marriage, from the late 1620s to the late 1630s. She was described by a contemporary writer as a “leading star” – a pun on her name which means lodestar or comet.

Upon her death in 1660 Leyster’s name was largely forgotten and her works were attributed to other artists. Since her rediscovery in the 1890s, scholars have been able to re-attribute both signed and unsigned paintings to her hand.

Judith Leyster, "Self-Portrait," c. 1630, oil on canvas http://1.usa.gov/OyrCez

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