Judith Leyster

Judith Leyster self-portrait, 1630, in National Gallery of Art, USA.

Judith Jans Leyster (also Leijster) (July 28 1609– February 10, 1660) was a seventeenth century Dutch artist who painted in various fields, including genre subjects, portraits and still lifes common in the Dutch Baroque period. She is best known for her happy scenes of family life, with her subjects singing, dancing and enjoying life. Her style reflected the Utrecht School, or "Caravaggists" who utilized the dramatic lighting affects of the tenebrist style, from Caravaggio. Well respected by her contemporaries, she exhibited a greater range than most Dutch painters of the era, and she was one of the first to develop the domestic genre scene as subject matter.

Biography

Leyster was born in Haarlem as the eighth child of Jan Willemsz Leyster, a local clothmaker and brewer. While the details of her training are uncertain, in her teens she was well enough known to be mentioned in a Dutch book by Samuel Ampzing titled Beschrijvinge ende lof der stadt Haerlem, originally written in 1621, revised in 1626-27, and published in 1628. Her father's bankruptcy nearly derailed her career but she managed to continue her painting while her father created a new business in beer making.

The Happy Couple, by Leyster 1630 (Louvre).

Serenade (bottom lit) by Leyster, 1629 (Rijksmuseum).

By 1633, she was a member of the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke, one of only two women (the other was a house painter) who gained entrance into the group. Within two years of her entry into the guild, she had taken on three male apprentices. Records show that Leyster sued Frans Hals for stealing one of her students who had left her workshop, for that of Hals, not three days after he arrived. The student's mother paid Leyster 4 guilders in punitive damages, only half of what Leyster asked for, and, instead of returning her apprentice, Hals settled the due by paying a 3 guilder fine. Leyster was also fined for not having registered the apprentice with the Guild.

In 1636, she married Jan Miense Molenaer, a more prolific, though less talented, artist of similar subjects. In hopes of better economic prospects, they moved to Amsterdam, where the art market was far more stable. They remained there for eleven years; they had five children, only two of which survived to adulthood. They eventually moved to Heemstede. In Heemstede they shared a studio in a small house that no longer exists, but was located on the grounds of the present-day Groenendaal park. Some of the same models and props showed up in both of their works as they shared their studio. Leyster died at age 50, in 1660.

Most of Leyster's dated works are from 1629-1635, prior to her marriage and having children. There are only two known pieces painted after 1635; two illustrations in a book about tulips from 1643 and a portrait from 1652.

Although well known during her lifetime and esteemed by her contemporaries, Leyster and her work were largely forgotten after her death. Leyster's rediscovery came in 1893. The Louvre had purchased a Frans Hals only to find it had been in fact painted by Judith Leyster. A dealer had changed the monogram that she used as a signature. Art historians since that period have often dismissed her as an imitator or follower of Hals, although this attitude has changed somewhat in the last few years.

Leyster and Frans Hals

The nature of Leyster's professional relationship with Hals is unclear; she may have been his student or else a friendly colleague. She may have been a witness at the baptism of Hals' daughter Maria in the early 1630s, since a Judith Jans was recorded as such, but there were other Judith Janses in Haarlem. There is no documented evidence of Judith Leyster's apprenticeship under Frans Hals, even though much of Leyster's work, such as the Merry Drinker from 1629 (now in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam), has a very strong resemblance to The Jolly Drinker of 1627-28 by Hals (also in the Rijksmuseum). Some historians have asserted that Hals must have been Leyster's teacher due to the close similarity between their work.

Another account from the poet Samuel Ampzing, reports that she spent time with portrait painter Frans Pietersz de Grebber implying she learned some of his style. According to an international team of 12 art, economic, and social historians, in Judith Leyster: A Dutch Master and Her World, she is seen as closer to husband, Jan Miense Molenaer and Dirck Hals in style than to older brother, Franz Hals.

Her work and legacy

Leyster was particularly innovative in her domestic genre scenes, early on she was influenced by the Utrecht "Caravaggisti" (followers of Caravaggio). In them, she creates quiet scenes of women at home, which were not a popular theme in Holland until the 1650s. Much of her other work was similar in nature to that of many of her contemporaries, such as Hals, Hendrick Terbrugghen, Gerrit van Honthorst, and Jan Steen; such genre paintings, generally of taverns and other scenes of entertainment, catered to the tastes and interests of a growing segment of the Dutch middle class.

Like the Utrecht Caravaggisti, she introduced light sources into her paintings from the tenebrist style (extreme contrasts of light and dark in figurative compositions to heighten their dramatic effect) as in the lamp-lit The Proposition (1631). The tenebrist style, used by Leyster, was more dramatic than the original Chiaroscuro used by Da Vinci, but made even more harsh by Caravaggio and his followers-like Leyster, who isolated images in the bright light to add more emotional tension. She used dashing brushwork and a lively spirit in her work, resulting in self-confident portraits, still lifes and allegories about Dutch life, but her distinctive personal style matured in the small, intimate candle-lit scenes for which she is famous.

Many of Leyster’s works were in the past attributed to her male contemporaries, modern investigation and study now recognizes her unique gift and contribution to seventeenth century Dutch painting. Among her best-known paintings are The Proposition, Carousing Couple (1630; also called The Happy Couple), and Boy Playing the Flute (c. 1635).

Judith Leyster was one of very few artists of her time who could distinguish herself aside from the majority male artists. She showed talent from early in her life and was the only woman painter (aside from one woman house painter) in the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke. She was well respected by her contemporaries and had a number of apprentices which indicated her skill in painting.

Her distinctive signature is a monogram containing a star motif, a play on her surname 'Ley ster' (lode star).

See also

• Women Artists
• Artemisia Gentileschi
• Berthe Morisot
• Levina Teerlinc
• Sofonisba Anguissola
• Angelica Kauffmann

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Broersen, Ellen, 'Judita Leystar': A Painter of 'Good, Keen Sense', from Judith Leyster: A Dutch Master and Her World, Yale University, 1993. ASIN B000OS19M6
• Chadwick, Whitney, Women, Art, and Society, Thames and Hudson, London, 1990. ISBN 9780500203934
• Gaze, Delia, ed. "Leyster, Judith" in Dictionary of Women Artists. 2 vols. Routledge, 1997. ISBN 9781884964213
• Harris, Anne Sutherland and Linda Nochlin, Women Artists: 1550-1950, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Knopf, New York, 1977. ISBN 9780394733265
• Heller, Nancy G. Women Artists: An Illustrated History, Abbevile Press, 2004. ISBN 9780789207685
• Rosoff, Ilene. The WomenSource Catalog and Review: Tools for Connecting the Community for Women, Celestial Arts, 2007. ISBN 9780890878316
• Vigue, Jordi. Great Women Masters of Art, Watson-Guptill, 2003. ISBN 9780823021147

External links

All links retrieved December 6, 2008.

• National Museum of Women in the Arts
• Artist Profile at Artcyclopedia
• Literature on Judith Leyster
• The Archive: Judith Leyster
• Judith Leyster - Rijksmuseum Amsterdam - Museum for Art and History
• Worldwide Arts Resources

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