The Mirror and the Palette
Almost 500 years ago, a young woman in Antwerp painted a self-portrait and signed it with a simple message: “I Catharina van Hemessen have painted myself / 1548 / Here aged 20.” It was the first example of a self-portrait of an artist of any gender sitting at an easel. Although Hemessen bucked the trend and went on to become a court artist in Spain, few women of her generation ever made a living from painting professionally.
Nearly a century later, in 1633, 31 artists were accepted as members of the Haarlem Guild of Saint Luke. Membership enabled them to sell their work, open their own workshops and teach apprentices. Thirty of the guild’s accepted artists were men, while only one was a woman: Judith Leyster. Though greatly acclaimed during her lifetime, Leyster was forgotten after her death, and until 1893, her paintings were presumed to be either by Frans Hals or her husband, Jan Miense Molenaer.
After centuries of suppression, when women had little or no access to any kind of artistic training, several reassessments are now being made, and one is by Jennifer Higgie in The Mirror and the Palette. An Australian novelist, screenwriter, critic and editor of the London-based magazine Frieze, Higgie interlaces biography with cultural and art history, telling stories of risk, endeavour, courage, resilience and creativity. The book explores women artists’ self-portraits as they determined to express themselves artistically and usually had to fight against authority and tradition – because even though women have always made art, there has been almost constant obstruction from the state, the church, their own families and the public.
Hemessen, Leyster, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Amrita Sher-Gil, Sofonisba Anguissola, Gwen John, Nora Heysen, Suzanne Valadon and other extraordinary female artists who lived and worked from the 16th to the 20th centuries are all considered here. Their self-portraits are examined to uncover how and why they became – and remained – artists, and what their self-representation reveals about them and the times in which they lived. It’s a lively and edifying read.
Susie Hodge, author of art history books including The Short Story of Women Artists (Laurence King)