Self-Portrait

Around 1560 Sofonisba Anguissola, a young noblewoman from Cremona, did something almost no woman of her time could: she left Italy for the court of Philip II in Spain, brought there as a lady-in-waiting and painting companion to the teenage queen, Elisabeth of Valois. As a woman and a gentlewoman, she could not train or work like a male painter, so the self-portrait became her signature form, proof in her own steady gaze that a respectable lady could also be a real artist. Here she presents herself soberly dressed and composed, holding the tools of a trade she was not supposed to have. She would spend about 14 years at the Spanish court, admired all the while, and live to nearly 90.