Self-Portrait
Judith Leyster·c. 1630
Historical Context
Judith Leyster's Self-Portrait from around 1630 is one of the most remarkable self-portraits by a woman artist of the seventeenth century, depicting herself at her easel in the act of painting a merry fiddler, turning to address the viewer with the confidence of a fully professional artist. Leyster was admitted to the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke in 1633, a rare achievement for a woman, and ran her own independent workshop. The self-portrait makes a professional statement — she wears her painter's smock, she has turned from her work to acknowledge the viewer, and the painting-within-a-painting demonstrates her technical range. Her work was long misattributed to Frans Hals and Jan Steen, and it was only in the twentieth century that her independent achievement was properly recognized and her signed works separated from male contemporaries.
Technical Analysis
Leyster's self-portrait demonstrates her lively brushwork and warm palette influenced by Frans Hals, under whom she likely trained. The turned pose and engaging smile create a sense of spontaneous movement, while the careful rendering of the palette and brushes emphasizes her identity as a working artist.
Provenance
Possibly the painting identified as a painting by Frans Hals depicting his daughter at the easel that appeared in four London sales between 1810 and 1812.[1] E.M. Grainger, Hastings, Sussex; Mrs. Granger, Bexhil-on-Sea, East Sussex;[2] (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 16 April 1926, no. 115); purchased by E. Smith, probably for a London dealer.[3] private collection, New York, in 1928.[4] (Ehrich Galleries, New York); purchased 9 May 1929 by Mr. and Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss, Washington, D.C.;[5] gift 1949 to NGA. [1] This suggestion was made by Burton Fredericksen. In a letter of 12 December 2002 to Arthur Wheelock (in NGA curatorial files) Fredericksen writes that the lack of recorded dimensions, the low price at which the painting was bought in, and the fact that it was part of a group of minor paintings prevent a firm conclusion, although paintings by Hals did not bring high prices at the beginning of the nineteenth century. For the first three sales, the painting was described as _The Portrait of F. Hals' Daughter_ by F. Hals; for the fourth sale it was _The Painter's Daughter at her Easel_, also by Hals. The sales are as follows: consigned by a Dr. Biam (or Byam) along with four other paintings to Christie's, London, 7 July 1810, no. 161, bought in; the same consignor to Christie's, London, 8 March 1811, no. 65, bought in; consigned by "Pritchard" to Christie's, London, 19 April 1811, no. 157; anonymous consignor to Peter Coxe, London, 3 June 1812, no. 28, bought in. [2] Lynda McLeod, Librarian, Christie’s Archives, kindly provided the name of the consignor; see her e-mail of 1 August 2012, in NGA curatorial files. Despite the slight difference in the spelling of the last name, E.M. Grainger and Mrs. Granger were likely related. [3] Information on this purchaser is from an annotated copy of the 1926 sale catalogue, and various articles in London papers giving the sale results; copies in NGA curatorial files. [4] The owner of the painting is identified in this way in Wilhelm R. Valentiner, "Rediscovered Paintings by Frans Hals," _Art in America_ 16 (1928): 239, fig. 2. [5] The purchase date is in the donor's collection records for the painting, in NGA curatorial files.
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