From the previous article on Renaissance Women Artists, I managed to tell you the slightest story about each of them and also the known fact that most of them painted or enhanced their skills because they were daughters of artists. But there were other women artists who literally painted with the exception that their fathers weren’t practicing painters. For instance, Sofonisba Anguissola of the sixteenth century, Judith Leyster of Holland, and Mary Beale of England of the seventeenth century were among them, who not only did well in their career but also empowered the lives of other women artists through their artistic inventions. It is worth mentioning that compared to previous eras or times, the Age of Enlightenment witnessed an improved women’s social position. Their chance for artistic instruction outside the concerned family’s studio improved, and more women studied painting because of their talent and not because of their inclination towards the family’s tradition. However, in the nineteenth century, it became difficult again for a woman to choose and pursue the profession of being an artist unless she came from a wealthy or artistic family. However, even with all the difficulties faced, once the women artists firmed their thoughts, they painted like no other. Today, in this article, we are here to learn more about Judith Leyster, a professional who not only competed against a male-dominated trade but also was one of the finest painters of one of the most dynamic periods of European Art history.
Judith Leyster | Fast Knowledge
Judith Lester, born on 28 July 1609 in Haarlem, was one of the finest woman artists of the 17th century, excelling in portraiture, still-life, and genre art. She was a reputed member of the guild in 1633 and competed with some of the best artists of her day. At 26, she married Jan Miense Molenaer, also a painter.
Artist Abstract: Judith Leyster.
Judith Leyster (1609-1660) was one of the most remarkable painters of her time. She was the only female member of the painters’ guild who had a workshop and worked actively in the art market. Being brought up in a non-artistic family, Judith composed a microcosm of the Haarlem genre painting with the subject and style in captivating scenes of everyday life. Learning about Judith Leyster as an artist is significant because it tells about the revealing and unique perspective of the European art period of the seventeenth century and the quality of women’s artwork in contrast with men’s. The first article in the history of literature on Judith Leyster was written by Dutch art historian Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, which was largely overlooked for more than two centuries.
Judith was the only female among the thirty master painters of the Haarlem guild of the early 1630s. Her family business was cloth manufacturing, where her father was a textile worker at first who left the southern Netherlands in the late sixteenth century for the religious freedom and economic opportunities Holland offered. However, after some time, in 1624, her family petitioned to declare bankruptcy. During this same time, Judith had just begun her artistic career, which would eventually make her a star artist in the future. Her compelling oeuvre covered a few genres like still-life, portrait paintings, and botanical drawing in watercolors and silverpoint. Being known as the follower of Frans Hals, her innovation in the art contributed significantly to Dutch art.
We will study about her life in more detail in later sections.
| Artist | Judith Leyster |
| Birth | 28 July 1609 |
| Death | 10 February 1660 (at the age of fifty) |
| Nationality | Dutch |
| Genre | Still-life, Genre art, Portraiture |
| Period | Baroque |
| Famous Paintings | Self Portrait, The Serenade, etc. |
Learning the Life of the Artist.
Baptized in the reformed church of Haarlem on July 28, 1609, Judith was the daughter of Jan Willemssen of Antwerp and Trijin Jaspers of Haarlem. The name, Leyster didn’t happen to belong to the family when the artist was born, instead was the name of Haarlem Brewery which was owned by his father. The family residence was located in the Bakenessergracht. After the declaration of the bankruptcy, they bore ‘Leijster’ as their surname. The adoption of the surname from one’s house or place of business wasn’t uncommon in those days. Besides, the “Leyster” means leading star or pole star, which really changed the life of Judith, thereafter.
A little background on the artist’s family is that Judith’s parents were married at the Reformed Church of Haarlem on 7 August 1594, and they had nine children. Judith was the eighth child of the couple with siblings- Anna (1595), Magdalena (1597), Sara (1599), Willem (1609), Trinken (1603), Esther (1605), Catherijn (1607) and Abraham (1611). Out of these eight, only six survived. Judith might have been named after a family friend, Judith van Wetteren, who was also a witness to the baptism of Catherijn in 1607. As the bankruptcy hit the family, all the property and assets were sold to pay the taxes. And so his young children of the family aged between ten to twenty, worked to defray the family’s expenses. This financial catastrophe may have shaped the journey of Judith Leyster to become a prosperous artist.
Coming to the development and training of the artist, there are two plausible scenarios- neither of them can’t be verified. She might have worked first in the shop of Frans Pietersz de Grebber or that of Frans Hals, who was a mature artist. There is a certain association between Frans and Judith, which is not specified clearly. There might also be a certainty that Judith worked in the De Grebber shop or might have connected to Maria de Grebber as both of them were young women artists. Judith Leyster might have started her career as an embroiderer, a skill in which the Grebber family excelled. It might have influenced the later portraits of Judith through formal and conservative direction. She worked with the Grebbers until about 1628, and after that, she commenced her studies in the Frans Hal’s shop, becoming a master painter in 1633.
One possibility that Judith worked in the Hals shop is that her painting, the Jester was executed before 1626, which was a painting of Frans. And it is almost impossible to copy an artwork while working in somebody else’s studio.
Though Judith’s family lived in Vreeland due to the bankruptcy, Judith lived in Haarlem under the supervision of one of her married sisters (Anna or Magdalena). Afterward, however, she moved with her parents to Utrecht, as her artwork was strongly influenced by Utrecht Caravaggisti. The years 1629-36 were significant for Judith Leyster as most of her paintings date from this time. Coming to 1629, it marked the first monogrammed paintings of Judith. Some of them are Serenade and the Jolly Toper. During the time 1629-30, the paintings Judith executed bear the idea of her close association with Frans Hals. In addition to her professional relationship with Frans, she might had a personal connection too, as she witnessed the baptism of one of the Hals’ daughters in 1631. In 1633, Judith Leyster became the first woman to become a member of the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke. To be admitted to this guild, one must be a citizen of Haarlem with an age of at least twenty and must have been a student for around three years, while it required a painting presentation upon admission. For this purpose, she painted a Self-Portrait. In the following year, she had her own workshop with Davidt de Burry, Hendrick Jacobsz, and Willem Woutersz as students.
In 1636, she married the Haarlem artist, Jan Miense Molenaer and is said to have lived in Amsterdam. She married just at the age of twenty-six while marking professional as well as personal change in life. Jan was a Haarlem artist who created genre paintings and meticulous portraits like Smell from The Five Senses and Allegory of Marital Fidelity. There are more than seventy documents, which suggest that the couple had irregular financial affairs. They did change their residences with their five children. Now, one of the concerns about Judith Leyster paintings was that very few paintings of her are known from the time of her marriage till her death. It might be because she might be busy taking care of her family, whilst fending off her husband’s more importunate creditors. One of her only botanical illustrations was for a tulip sales catalog signed and dated 1643 – the year her first child, Helena, was born. Having a new baby on her hands may have led Leyster to undertake new kinds of work in small formats, like signed tulip drawings, which could be easily managed at home around her baptism. After three years, she gave birth to Eva, her fourth child. Since she married and gave birth to children, Judith does not seem to have painted much. She painted most of her signed and dated works before she married. An inventory listing from 1642, tulip illustrations, and a portrait are the exceptions to this rule. Other documents regarding the payment for paintings, or paintings promised in lieu of payment, specifically mention Molenaer’s work without mentioning Judith’s work.
Judith Leyster, whose immediate family went bankrupt seems to leave the artist with the same struggles in her adult life with her husband. It is unclear how Judith’s father ran a thriving business into shattered remains of disappointments. Jan Leyster lost all of his business and his only talented daughter, who was well-respected and professionally competing also led a life to lawsuits (of her husbands’s inability to pay bills), complicated financial obligations, and debts. After becoming a mother, she also saw the early deaths of her three children out of five, which might have taken a toll on her. Now, there was less stability in her marriage, which she hoped to have and in later life, she merely lost her career as a painter. On November 1659, Judith and Molenaer caught an illness, which was survived by Molenaer but Judith died at age fifty. She was buried in Heemstede on February 10, 1660.
Let’s now delve into the some of Judith Leyster paintings to learn more about her. Also, there is a lot more to learn about Judith’s life through her artworks and their influences, which the book, Judith Leyster: A Dutch Master and Her World describes in detail. You can consider reading it to know more about her.
A Quick Look at Judith Leyster Paintings.
Judith Leyster’s paintings ranged from a variety of interests like genre, still life, and portrait paintings; a few botanical drawings in watercolor and at least one etching. She variedly painted from modest drawings like tulips to the iconographic portraiture, Self Portrait. From painting card shapes and backgammon players to mothers sewing or engaged in their children’s work; boys playing flutes and men attempting to seduce women; children with their pets, or bible-toting burglars in black, she nearly showed all the domestic subjects with play of light and shadows. Sometimes, Judith would paint the sunlight on the wall to show an ease of light, and other times she could compose the mysterious shadows of night flickered by a single candle flame. Infusing this life into her composition, she used strong diagonals in her compositions to level up the ‘worm’s eye view.’
If we compare her artworks in contrast to Frans Hals to see the influence of her artwork, we would realize that Hals specialized in composing portraits of smiling and approachable people whose formal attire never disguised the liveliness of the spirit. He usually painted and highlighted plain black clothes majestically with animating features of these subjects. Similar to his artworks, Judith Leyster also showed a celebration of unpretentious joys in her artwork. Animating her canvas with more linear designs, she usually used a diagonal element through a hat or feathered beret to play off different angles really well. Let’s walk through some of the paintings of Judith to clearly understand her painting style.
1. Serenade.
| Year Painted | Probably 1629 |
| Period | Baroque |
| Medium | Oil on panel |
| Dimensions | 45.5 x 35 cm |
| Price | Not on sale |
| Where is it housed? | Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
At first, this painting was wrongly attributed to Frans Hals by Willem Bode in 1883, which later changed to Jan Hals as there was the presence of “J” in the monogram. Ten years later, it was Hofstede de Groot, who recognized the work and attributed it to Judith Leyster, for which it still stands. Being a portraiture, the composition shows brilliance in color and use of broad brushwork. The nocturnal and candlelit scene portrays a Utrecht style, which says that this is one of the early artworks from Judith’s gallery. It is also reminiscent of Terbrugghen’s The Lute Player, which is now present in the National Gallery, London. The artwork sets an example of the influence of Honthorst on the Haarlem school with the use of hidden candlelight and a different kind of perspective to show the view of the face of the lute player, which Judith uses in her other artworks as well repeatedly.
2. Merry Company.
| Year Painted | c. 1629 |
| Period | Baroque |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 74.5 x 63.2 cm |
| Price | GBP 1,808,750 (Last Sold in December 2018) |
| Where is it housed? | Private Collection |
Merry Company shows a drinking party just like another painting, The Last Drop. The earliest provenance of the painting is that it belonged to the collection of Sir George Donaldson. Though it is unsigned, it might belong to c. 1629 based on the similarities in the figure type, lighting, and painting technique to the Serenade painting. This figure was also preferred in her one of her later portraiture, Self-Portrait, c. 1633. The Merry Company is a daylight scene with an animated spirit and tints of theatre. The composition has faces that peered in at the window, evoking a strong sense of an audience and smiling figures turn to salute the viewer amidst their revelry. The Merry Company depicts the relationship to another composition, The Last Drop, but there is a slight difference here. Though The Last Drop depicts a night scene with the dark consequences of an excessive indulgence in drink and tobacco, the Merry Company portrays controlled and self-assured joys of good fellowship with the use of stimulants in moderation.
3. Carousing Couple.
| Year Painted | Around 1630 |
| Period | Baroque |
| Medium | Oil on panel |
| Dimensions | 68 x 55 cm |
| Price | Not on sale |
| Where is it housed? | Louvre, Paris |
The Carousing Couple was the very first painting that was attributed to Judith Leyster in modern times. Since 1758, the painting had been attributed to Hals, despite Leyste’s monogram- an overlapped “J” and “L”. In Wertheimer’s defense (who said that the painting belonged to Hals), he argued that the monogram was composed of the letters of Hals’ name, pointing to the painting’s long provenance and continuous attribution to the artist. The attribution to Judith is unquestionable as the composition was executed in 1630, when it was still in Frans’s studio. It is Halsian who showed color, and humor with a more controlled brushwork, costume, detail, setting, and tone. There is a use of dynamic brushwork and composition with strong diagonals. Although Judith is at pains to show objects at angles- the table, violin, and even the man’s figure the movement of the composition is controlled. There is a charm and warmth in the faces of the figures of the composition, which played off against Judith’s use of loud and brilliant reds, blues, and black.
4. Concert.
| Year Painted | 1633 |
| Period | Baroque |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 60.9 x 86.3 cm |
| Price | Not on sale |
| Where is it housed? | National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay |
The attribution of the painting to Judith Leyster is due to the similarity of the figures from the Carousing Couple painting and the Judith Leyster Self-portrait (1633) and the technique similar to the Merry Company and The Last Drop. It shows half-length figures arranged obliquely with arms and musical instruments disposed of in such a way that the composition appears complex despite being essentially horizontal. The man (right) in the artwork is similar to Judith’s Carousing Couple, while the woman bears a slight resemblance to her Self-Portrait, 1633. The two men in the Italian theatrical costumes with the center woman in the contemporary dress record a specific performance with the iconography derived from Roemer Visscher’s emblem, “What Else Besides Beauty?” from Sinnepoppen. The painting composes a charm and pleasure among the characters.
5. Self Portrait.
| Year Painted | 1633 |
| Period | Baroque |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 72.3 x 65.3 cm |
| Price | Not on sale |
| Where is it housed? | National Gallery of Art, Washington |
Previously, the painting was attributed to Frans Hals, but sooner it was identified as the work of Judith Leyster. The identification of the painting was from a similar figure of the Merry Company. The temper, pose, and coloration are exuberant, and the costume with the inclusion of the fiddler from Merry Company proves that this artwork belonged to the early 1630s. Judith Leyster Self Portrait shows Judith’s face in a full and heavier or puffier form with her mouth open slightly. There is a use of artistic prowess by the artist as she wielded the eighteen brushes without a mahlstick. She played with different angles, which is truly a tour-de-force through her bodice, collar, arm, brush, and bow. Portraying herself as a spirited, confident woman, she leaned back with her elbow hooked over the chair, looking at the beholder with ease and comfort.
Final Words.
Judith Leyster was a great female artist who not only painted with confidence and spirit but also made an excellent reputation in the world of art. She was one of the first ladies to paint an intimate genre scene in Holland, which is a pride in itself. Not to forget the fact that during the Dutch Golden Age, it was mandatory to specialize in one type of painting. For instance, Hals was a portraitist, Claesz a still-life painter, and Vermeer a genre painter. Hence, Judith fit well in this tradition, while painting an intimate genre. The play of light, warm and cheerful expressions, bright colors, and use of profuse angles made her an exceptional artist to date.
Frequently Asked Questions.
Judith Leyster was the finest woman artist of the Dutch Golden Age, who was born in 1609 in a non-artistic family. Her compelling oeuvre covered a few genres like still-life, portrait paintings, and botanical drawing in watercolors and silverpoaint.
In November 1659, Judith and her husband, Jan Molenaer, caught an illness. And following this illness, they made a will in case they died. However, Molenaer survived the illness, while Judith died just after three months on 10 February 1660.
Judith wanted to join the Guilds’ of Painters Association. Following this, one of the mandator rules of the association was to paint a self-portrait. Hence, Judith painted a self-portrait for this purpose.
As of now, there are thirty-five paintings of Judith Leyster which are known today and survived. However, there might be a possibility that she left a few of her paintings in the limbo of indecipherability or assigned them to someone else, especially Hals or Leyster’s husband, Jan Miense Molenaer, a fellow Haarlem artist.
Judith Leyster as an artist is also significant because it tells about the revealing and unique perspective of the European art period of the seventeenth century and the quality of women’s artwork in contrast with men’s. In addition to being enough competent to compete with the male artists of her day, Judith Leyster dispelled the stigma associated with becoming an artist as a woman though not coming from an artistic family.
Resources.
- Judith Leyster: A Dutch Master and Her World by Pieter Biesboer (Editor), Mr. James A. Welu (Editor).
- Judith Leyster: A Woman Painter in Holland’s Golden Age by FRIMA FOX HOFRICHTER.
- Our Hidden Heritage: Five Centuries of Women Artists by Eleanor Tufts.
- Featured Image: A Boy and a Girl with a Cat and an Eel by Judith Leyster, Judith Leyster, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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