HEMESSEN, Catharina van
(b. 1528, Antwerpen, d. ca. 1587, Antwerpen)

Self-Portrait

1548
Oil on panel, 32 x 25 cm
Öffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basel

Her father, Jan Sanders van Hemessen was a well-known painter in Antwerp and presumably her teacher. She was a highly successful painter. Her paintings have a quiet dignity to them, the sitters eyes never meet the viewer's. Her pictures also tend to be small with plain dark backgrounds that give no sense of location or extended space.