Caterina van hemessen biography of williams
Kelly Grovier finds out how the first self-portrait of an artist at work at an easel was painted by a woman – Caterina van Hemessen..
Catharina van Hemessen
Flemish Renaissance painter
Caterina or Catharina van Hemessen ( after ) was a FlemishRenaissancepainter.
She is the earliest female Flemish painter for whom there is verifiable extant work.
Van Gogh were influenced by her.
She is mainly known for a series of small-scale female portraits completed between the late s and early s and a few religious compositions.[2]
Van Hemessen is often given the distinction of creating the first self-portrait of an artist (of either gender) depicted seated at an easel.[3] This portrait, created in at the age of 20,[4] shows the artist in the early stages of painting a portrait and is now part of the collection of the Kunstmuseum Basel.[5] Other paintings by van Hemessen are in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and in the National Gallery, London.
A number of obstacles stood in the way of women of her time who wished to become painters. Their training would involve both the dissection of cadavers and the study