Judith Leyster (1609 to 1660) grew up in Haarlem, the daughter of a cloth worker turned brewer, who named his brewery De Leyster (the lodestar) and took the name for the family. In 1633, at 24, she became a master in Haarlem's Guild of Saint Luke, one of the first women to do so. As a master she could sell her work, run a workshop and take pupils. She painted lively genre scenes of music-making and merry company, portraits and a few still lifes.
Looking closely: Leyster's Self-Portrait
Describe. Leyster turns from her easel toward us, smiling, lips parted as if about to speak. She holds a brush near a canvas on which a laughing violin player is taking shape, and a palette and a fistful of brushes in her other hand. She wears a fine dress with a wide lace collar. Analyze. The pose is relaxed and turning, the brushwork quick and loose, especially in the collar and the fiddler. Light from the left falls on her face, hand and brush. Interpret. Her clothes are far too fine for painting in, so this is a picture meant to sell her skill: a successful artist who can paint people laughing, music and lace, all in one canvas. Technical images show she first painted a different picture on the easel, a woman's figure, and changed it to the fiddler.
Key idea
Why it works
Common mistake
Worked example: Reading a monogram
- Hals signed with his own initials, FH.
- J and L with a star is Judith Leyster's monogram; her name means "lodestar."
- The mark suggests the painting is Leyster's, wrongly credited to Hals.
Answer: It is probably by Judith Leyster.
Genre scenes could be funny, rowdy or quiet, and many carry a light moral: a drinker who has had too much, a lute player tuning up for love, children at play. Viewers then enjoyed spotting these meanings, but scholars warn against reading every object as a hidden symbol.