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Shown from about the waist up, a woman with smooth, pale skin sits in a chair facing our right in front of a canvas on an easel in this vertical portrait. She leans onto her right elbow, which rests on the seat back. She turns her face to look at us, lips slightly parted. Her dress has a black bodice and a deep rose-pink skirt and sleeves. She wears a translucent white cap over her hair, which has been tightly pulled back. A stiff, white, plate-like ruff encircles her neck and reaches to her shoulders. She holds a paintbrush in her right hand and clutches about twenty brushes, a wooden paint palette, and a rag in her left hand, at the bottom right of the canvas. The painting behind her shows a man wearing robin's egg-blue and playing a violin.

Judith Leyster, Self-Portrait, c. 1630, oil on canvas, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss, 1949.6.1

Break for Art: Intern Talks!

Break for Art

  • Thursday, April 20, 2023
  • 12:15 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
  • West Building, Main Floor - Rotunda
  • Talks
  • In-person

Join National Gallery interns for discussions on two works of art reflecting their passions and interests: Judith Leyster’s Self-Portrait (c. 1630) and Edouard Manet's The Railway (1873).