Judith Leyster

17th century Dutch Golden Age painter, Judith Leyster was, like many great women artists, highly regarded during her lifetime but quickly forgotten, and even purposefully erased, after her death.

In so far as is known Leyster was the first woman in Western art history to have been officially recognised as a ‘master painter’ by a painters’ guild when she joined the Guild of St. Luke in 1633, at just 24 years old, where she was the only female artist amongst more than 30 members. She was soon running her own studio with three male pupils and several apprentices. Three years later, in 1636, she married fellow artist Jan Miense Molenaer and, thereafter, her artistic output slowed almost to a halt as her focus turned to still lifes and florals, of which she produced very few before her death in 1660.

Despite the brevity of her career, Leyster’s work shows a mastery over a variety of techniques including foreshortening and chiaroscuro which she used to breathe life into her subjects and to create ephemeral works that freeze a single, unassuming moment into her canvas. Her experimentations with these and other techniques results in highly innovative effects of light that can be seen in her nocturnal scenes wherein she also displays her talent for conveying complex narratives.

Around 20 of her paintings are presently known and they were all executed within a 6-year period between 1629 and 1635. Her small oeuvre can not only be attributed to her fleeting career but, more so, to the Haarlem art dealers who painted over signature with that of Frans Hals in order to sell them at a higher price. Due to this, she was almost completely lost from history. That was until 1893 when Cornelius Hofstede de Groot discovered her distinctive monogram on an artwork which had recently been sold to the Louvre as a Frans Hals. Hofstede de Groot’s discovery led to scandal, but, more importantly, to the reattribution of a further seven paintings with more discovered in the following century and a half.