''Self-Portrait'' is an oil on oak self-portrait executed by the
Flemish
Flemish may refer to:
* Flemish, adjective for Flanders, Belgium
* Flemish region, one of the three regions of Belgium
*Flemish Community, one of the three constitutionally defined language communities of Belgium
* Flemish dialects, a Dutch dialec ...
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
artist
Catharina van Hemessen
Caterina or Catharina van Hemessen (1528 – after 1565) was a Flemings, Flemish Renaissance Painting, painter. She is the earliest female Flemish painter for whom there is verifiable extant work. She is mainly known for a series of small ...
in 1548 when she was 20 years old. The portrait earned the artist a considerable reputation. It is significant for being one of the earliest paintings not only of a female of the early modern era but also of an artist in the act of painting.
While self-portraits were common at the time, only a few, like those of
Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer ( , ;; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer or Duerer, was a German painter, Old master prin ...
(d. 1528), showed the artist's everyday life.
Artists of the time rarely directly referred to, much less showed the tools of their profession.
It is assumed the portrait is one of the earliest to show a painter with a brush together with a palette and an easel.
Van Hemessen signed the panel in Latin: "
EGO CATERINA DE/ HEMESSEN ME / PINXI 1548 // ETATIS SVAE/ 20" (In English: "I Catharina van Hemessen painted myself / 1548 / Her age 20". The painting is in the collection of the
Kunstmuseum Basel
The Kunstmuseum Basel houses the oldest public art collection in the world and is generally considered to be the most important museum of art in Switzerland. It is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance.
Its lineage extends ba ...
.
Description
Van Hemessen is shown at half-length and holding a brush, looking outwards as if at her own image as she records it on the oak panel in front of her. She has only begun work on the depicted painting, no background has been put down, and only a sketch of her head can be seen. Her face is painted with soft brush strokes, while the textures of her gown are distinguished using a wider variety of brushmarks.

In the main image, the artist has shown herself elegantly clothed in a black
brocade
Brocade () is a class of richly decorative shuttle (weaving), shuttle-woven fabrics, often made in coloured silks and sometimes with gold and silver threads. The name, related to the same root as the word "broccoli", comes from Italian langua ...
dress with red velvet sleeves. While such an outfit would have been impractical for an artist working with oils and brushes, her clothes are intended to indicate her social rank and attribute personal dignity.
[Kemperdick, 96] Her arms are outsized in proportion to the rest of her body.
There are a number of deliberate contradictions and explorations of mirror images at play. Van Hemessen holds the brush with her right hand suggesting she has reversed the image of herself that she would have seen in the mirror. Her head, as shown on the panel that she is apparently working on, is undersized and situated on the top left. That is opposite to the position her head appears in the portrait painting.
Her head is turned in the direction of the viewer, but her eyes do not meet ours. Typical of her work, the background is plain and dark and gives no indication of the space occupied by the sitter.
A number of obstacles stood in the way of contemporary women who wished to become painters. Chief amongst these was the fact that their training would involve both the dissection of cadavers and the study of the nude male form. In addition, the system of apprenticeship meant that the aspiring artist would need to live with an older artist for 4–5 years, often beginning from the age of 9–15. For these reasons, female artists were extremely rare, and those that did make it through were typically trained by a close relative, in van Hemessen's case, by her
father
A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. A biological fat ...
.
Attribution
While some have speculated that the work was created by Catharina's father, the prominent painter
Jan Sanders van Hemessen
Jan Sanders van Hemessen (c. 1500 – c. 1566) was a leading Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, Flemish Renaissance painter, belonging to the group of Italianizing Flemish painters called the Romanism (painting), Romanists, who were in ...
(1500 – c. 1566), who portrayed women with the same large round and dark eyes and reduced chin, the prominence of the signature is generally regarded as evidence that the work was by her own hand.
Pendant
A panel by van Hemessen in the
Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne (inv. 654) from the same year and of the same size depicting a young woman playing the virginal probably depicts Catharina's sister Christina, two years her senior. It likely was made as a counterpart to the self-portrait.
[Kemperdick, 98][Catharina van Hemessen, ''Self-Portrait at the Easel'']
at the Kunstmuseum Basel
Other versions
Of the version of the self-portrait in the Kunstmuseum Basel, two almost identical versions exist, both attributed to Catharina herself. One i
the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburgand the other one i
the Iziko South African National Gallery, Capetown
Notes
Sources
* Jones, Susan Frances. ''Van Eyck to Gossaert''. London: National Gallery, 2011.
* Kemperdick, Stephan. ''The Early Portrait, from the Collection of the Prince of Liechtenstein and the Kunstmuseum Basel''. Munich: Prestel, 2006.
* Kleiner, Fred. ''Gardner's Art Through the Ages''. Wadsworth, 2009.
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Hemessen cat
Hemessen cat
Catharina van Hemessen
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Hemessen cat
Hemessen cat