Judith Leyster: The First Woman to become a Master Painter

Written by Mary Flanagan Wednesday, March 24 2010

AMSTERDAM – Most women have heard of the Dutch master painters of 17th century, either from an art class or the handy storage boxes made by a cigar firm. What few know is that one of those master painters was a woman: Judith Leyster. To celebrate the 400th birthday of the first woman to be officially recognized as a master painter, the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, her city of birth, is now holding an exhibition of some of Leyster’s finest works. There are only about 20 known paintings by Leyster; her career was short lived and underwent a dramatic change once she got married.

“Leyster was considered the leading woman artist of her time by her contemporaries,” according to Anna Tummers, curator of "Old Master Paintings" at the Frans Hals Museum and author of the book accompanying the exhibition. “By 1628 she was highly praised in print and had already achieved certain fame. We know from her paintings that by 1629 she had her own style and was able to take credit for her paintings even before she officially became a master painter, which was quite unique.”

In 1633, Judith Leyster, around the age of 23, became the first woman to be accepted into the St. Luke's Guild of Haarlem, the good old boys network of about 30 master painters who cornered the local art market. Consequently, Leyster was legally permitted to establish her own workshop with assistants, sign and sell her own paintings, and instruct paying (male) students. “Honest” women in the Netherlands at that time traditionally worked at spinning, sewing, housekeeping, or helping in the businesses of their husbands or fathers. For a young unmarried daughter of a weaver-turned-brewer to pursue her own career in the male bastion of professional painters was exceptional.

A self-portrait of Leyster, done around 1633, is on loan from the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., for this exhibition. It shows a young woman perched at an easel, beaming a self-confident smile while wielding 18 paint brushes in one hand, calling attention to her proficiency in her craft. Her white lace collar and cuffs are a fashion statement and totally unsuitable as painting attire. Because of its dating, this painting could possibly have been submitted as her entrance examination for membership in the guild.

“In so far as is known, Leyster is the only 17th century woman who painted modern figure pieces,” according to Tummers. Rather than the church or aristocracy, Leyster's clients were from the burgeoning Dutch middle class, which for the first time in history had money to spend on luxury items, such as paintings – provided they were modest in format. Aiming at that market, Leyster's genre scenes were often compositions with one or at most two merry characters with little or no background, such as The Jolly Toper, which is on loan from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Her broad brushstrokes had been incorrectly attributed to her famous colleague Frans Hals (of the museum’s name) for centuries. Leyster signed her canvases with a clever little pictogram of the letter J followed by a shooting star. Lei-ster means lodestar or guiding star in Dutch. Perhaps this idea of hers was not so clever in the long run, because her quirky signature was often overlooked years later.