Catharina van Hemessen: Signature Works

Prévia: escrita antes da abertura da exposição

In 1548 a 20-year-old Antwerp painter sat at her easel in expensive, quite impractical velvet, with brushes, palette and mahlstick, and had just begun to outline a small female head on the panel. Across the background she wrote in Latin: "I Catharina van Hemessen have painted myself, 1548, her age 20." It is the earliest surviving oil painting of any artist at work, and Basel is lending it to London for this show.

Van Hemessen is the only 16th-century Flemish woman painter known to have signed her pictures, and this is her first UK exhibition. It fills one room, Room 1, and aims to gather most of her signed paintings; only eight signed portraits and a few devotional works survive in public collections. If the loans come through, you can see most of what she ever put her name to without turning a corner.

Entry is free. The fuller version, with her father's workshop, runs at Antwerp's Snijders&Rockox House until 31 January 2027.