Catarina van Hemessen

In 1548 a 20-year-old painter in Antwerp sat down and painted herself at her own easel, palette and brushes in hand, turning to look out at us over her shoulder. Above her she wrote, in Latin, "I, Caterina van Hemessen, painted myself, 1548". It is one of the earliest self-portraits by a woman painter, and it is often cited as among the earliest images of a painter at the easel.

She had learned her craft from her father, Jan van Hemessen, a well-known Antwerp painter, and specialised in small, sober portraits of prosperous sitters set against dark backgrounds. Only about 10 signed works by her survive, most from a short span around 1548 to 1552.

Her reputation reached Mary of Hungary, the regent who governed the Netherlands for her brother the emperor, and around 1556 Catarina and her husband, the organist Chrétien de Morien, were invited to the Habsburg court in Spain. After the regent's death little more is heard of her painting, and that self-portrait hangs today in Basel.