Kim Y. Egbert and Dr. Martha L. Peacock, Art History
In 1546 Francesco da Sangallo declared, “There are [many women] in Flanders and in France and even in Italy who paint in such away that in Italy their pictures are held in high esteem.”1 One such woman was Caterina van Hemessen, a Sixteenth-Century Dutch Portraitist. Trained by her father, who was an accomplished painter himself, van Hemessen painted portraits of herself, her sister, and prominent individuals from her community. She lived a relatively long life (from 1528 to after 1587), but curiously, her last painting is dated just after her marriage to the local church organist, Christian de Morien, in 1554. Despite this early end to her painting career, van Hemessen managed to produce a relatively substantial body of work (a few paintings of which are reproduced on the following page). Her portraits rely heavily on her Flemish artistic heritage, yet they hold a quiet but dignified mark that is entirely van Hemessen’s. My research focused on the significance of Caterina van Hemessen, long overshadowed by her contemporaries, in the canon of Sixteenth-Century Dutch Portraitists.
I found myself severely limited in my research primarily because of language barriers. The most comprehensive and latest research on early women painters in the Sixteenth-Century Netherlands is produced by foreign scholars. Therefore, much of the recent research that would have helped me in my project proved to be inaccessible to me. In the seventies, several American scholars published books that mentioned van Hemessen’s life and her contributions to portraiture, yet none were extensive in their research. In fact, it seems as though much of the research conducted on van Hemessen is limited to a few dates, some commentary on her portraits, and brief treatments of the significant events in her life. These facts are repeatedly listed in several American texts and even on the World Wide Web. Apparently, very little American research has been conducted on van Hemessen in the past twenty years. Accordingly, my research was limited and consequently incomplete.
From the research accessible to me, I discovered that van Hemessen shared much in common with her great predecessors Robert Campin and Roger van der Weyden, two skilled Dutch portraitists. Like these artists, van Hemessen chose to focus on the face of the sitter by using a dark background that is virtually unrecognizable and therefore not distracting. When she does use props, they are secondary to the face of the sitter (see FIG. 1). For example, her own self-portrait features van Hemessen at her work, yet it is her face that stands out from the dark background. Although the figures on the next page are black and white, they still display van Hemessen’s skill in reproducing fabrics and her emphasis on the sitters’ faces. Such an exclusion of environment allows for what is called psychology (or the emotions, character, sensibilities, etc. of the sitter) to run through her paintings. Although her compositions may not be original and her depiction of hands awkward at times (FIG. 2), her psychology is excellent. (I have included only two examples of van Hemessen’s work, a self-portrait and a depiction of her sister at the spinet, for brevity’s sake. She also painted several portraits of local gentry in which she expertly depicts fabric and faces, once again proving her ability to transmit personality and character through paint on a canvas.)
Although her father painted primarily to inspire good behavior or to warn against sin, van Hemessen chose to be a portraitist. Her ability to produce the all-important psychology of Northern portraiture, which was recognized and rewarded by her patron Queen Mary of Hungary, sets her apart from her mediocre contemporaries and gives her a place with great Sixteenth Century Dutch portraitists such as Campin and van der Weyden.
References
- Harris, Ann Sutherland and Linda Nochlin, Women Artists: 1550-1950, New York: Los Angeles County Museum of Art (1976)13.
- “Renaissance and Baroque Women Artists.” Women Artists Archive. Salazar Library, Figures taken from pages 50 and 54 of Elenor Tufts’ Our Hidden Heritage: Five Centuries ofWomen Artists (New York: Paddington Press, Ltd., 1974).
Figures taken from pages 50 and 54 of Elenor Tufts’ Our Hidden Heritage: Five Centuries of Women Artists (New York: Paddington Press, Ltd., 1974).