Judith Leyster

Molenaer, Judith

Dutch, 1609 - 1660

Explore Selected Works

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

Self-Portrait

Judith Leyster · c. 1630 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1949.6.1

This round portrait painting shows the head, face, and the top of the shoulders of a young, blond boy with pale, peachy skin and flushed cheeks, facing our right in profile against a tan background. Light comes from behind us and to our left, so the boy’s cheek, jawline, and ear are brightly lit as he looks straight ahead, to our left. He has long, dark eyelashes, a turned-up nose, and his full, coral-pink lips are closed. The cheek we see is deeply flushed along the curve, near the nose and mouth. His short, light brown hair is highlighted with gold strands where it catches the light. A long tendril falls down past his chin on the far side of his face. He wears a fitted jacket, perhaps of brown velvet, stitched along the seams in a lighter golden color. The narrow, white ruff encircling his neck above the jacket is pleated to create a pattern of figure-eights. The background is lighter to our right and deepens to a brownish olive green to our left. The portrait is somewhat loosely painted with visible brushstrokes.
Judith Leyster, Young Boy in Profile, c. 1630, oil on panel, Gift of Mrs. Thomas M. Evans, 2009.113.1

Young Boy in Profile

Judith Leyster · c. 1630 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  2009.113.1

Bibliography

1628

  • Ampzing, Samuel. Beschrijvinge ende lof der stad Haerlem in Holland. Haarlem, 1628: 370.

1648

  • Schrevelius, Theodorus. Harlemias, ofte, De eerst stichtinghe der stad Haarlem. Reprinted in 1754. Haarlem, 1648: 290.

1927

  • Harms, Juliane. "Judith Leyster: Ihr Leben und ihr Werk." Parts 1-5. Oud-Holland 44 (1927): 88-96, 112-126, 145-154, 221-244, 275-279.

1975

  • Hofrichter, Frim Fox. "Judith Leyster's Proposition: Between Virtue and Vice." The Feminist Art Journal 4, no. 3 (Fall 1975): 22-26.

1984

  • Sutton, Peter C. Masters of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting. Edited by Jane Iandola Watkins. Exh. cat. Philadelphia Museum of Art; Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin; Royal Academy of Arts, London. Philadelphia, 1984: 233-235.

1989

  • Hofrichter, Frima Fox. Judith Leyster: A Woman Painter in Holland's Golden Age. Doornspijk, 1989.

1991

  • MacLaren, Neil. The Dutch School, 1600-1900. Revised and expanded by Christopher Brown. 2 vols. National Gallery Catalogues. London, 1991: 1:226.

1993

  • Welu, James A., and Pieter Biesboer. Judith Leyster: A Dutch Master and Her World. Exh. cat. Frans Halsmuseum, Haarlem; Worcester Art Museum. Haarlem, 1993.

  • Welu, James A., and Pieter Biesboer. Judith Leyster: Schilderes in een Mannenwereld. Exh. cat. Frans Halsmuseum, Haarlem. Zwolle, 1993.

1995

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 154-155.

2009

  • Hofrichter, Frima Fox. Judith Leyster (1609-1660). Exh. brochure. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2009.