
Self-portrait. Caterina van Hemessen. 1548. Öffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basel.
For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.
Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), British writer and essayist
Caterina van Hemessen is the earliest Flemish painter with surviving artwork. She was likely taught by her father who was also an artist and became a noted portraitist. The self-portrait (above) is the earliest of an artist seated at an easel. There is no surviving artwork from van Hemessen after 1554 which has caused art historians to speculate that her creative career ended with her marriage.
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