Judith Leyster, also known as Judith Jans Leijster, was a Dutch painter during the Golden Age known for her genre works, still lifes, and portraits. Despite being highly esteemed by her contemporaries, her art fell into obscurity after her death. Many of her works were wrongly attributed to Frans Hals or her husband, Jan Miense Molenaer.
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However, in 1893, her art was rediscovered, and scholars started to properly attribute her works to her name.
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Judith Leyster Biography
Leyster, a Dutch painter from Haarlem, was born into a family of eight children. Her father was a brewer who faced financial struggles and bankruptcy. While her exact training is not known, she was mentioned in a contemporary book about Haarlem. Some speculate that she pursued painting to support her family.
She may have learned from Frans Pietersz de Grebber, who had a well-respected workshop in Haarlem during the 1620s. Her first signed work dates to 1629. By 1633, she was admitted to the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke. Although it is unclear if she was the first female member of the guild, dozens of other female artists may have been admitted but were not recorded as such.
Her Self-Portrait, c. 1633, held in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., is believed to be her presentation piece to the Guild. This work demonstrates a shift from earlier female self-portraits, which were more rigid, towards a more dynamic and relaxed pose.
Within two years of joining the Guild, she had three male apprentices. She sued Frans Hals, who had accepted a student from her workshop without permission from the Guild. Leyster was fined for not registering the apprentice, and Hals paid a fine rather than return the apprentice. This dispute brought Leyster’s work greater recognition.
In 1636, Leyster married fellow artist Jan Miense Molenaer and moved to Amsterdam. They returned to the Haarlem area eleven years later, sharing a studio in a small house. Leyster and Molenaer had five children, two of whom survived. Most of Leyster’s works that can be dated were painted before her marriage.
Only a few pieces painted after 1635 are known to exist, and it is possible that she collaborated with her husband. Leyster died in 1660 and was buried outside Haarlem. Her work was not attributed to her for almost 200 years, possibly due to the inventory of her estate attributing many paintings to “the wife of Molenaer.”
Early Life and Training of Judith Leyster
Judith Leyster was the eighth child of Jan Willemsz and Trijn Jaspers. The family adopted the name “Leyster” from their brewery on Bakenessergracht, and lived comfortably until Jan’s bankruptcy in 1625. It was around this time that Judith and her siblings began working to support the family financially.
There are two possible sources of Leyster’s artistic training, but neither can be confirmed. She may have apprenticed under either Frans Pietersz de Grebber or Hals. Maria de Grebber, the only other female artist in Haarlem at the time, was roughly the same age as Leyster and was studying in her father’s workshop, which could have been a factor in Leyster’s decision.
However, Leyster also created a copy of Hals’s painting, The Jester, early in her career, which suggests she may have been working in Hals’s studio.
Judith Leyster’s Life and Art
At the age of 26, Judith Jans Leyster married another painter from Haarlem, Molenaer, who was known for his portraits, genre paintings, landscapes, and religious works. This union was commemorated by a pair of pendant portraits painted by Frans Hals.
Leyster and Molenaer settled in Haarlem and later in Amsterdam, where they raised their five children: Joannes, Jacobus, Helena, Eva, and Constantijn. Unfortunately, only two of their children survived to adulthood, and Leyster’s artistic output declined after her marriage.
According to Frima Fox Hofrichter’s book, Judith Leyster: A Woman Painter in Holland’s Golden Age, Leyster’s early promise was not realized later in her life, though there are some exceptions.
For example, she produced a botanical illustration for a tulip sales catalog in 1643, around the time of her daughter Helena’s birth. It’s possible that Leyster collaborated with Molenaer on some of her later works, which have not been attributed correctly.
Leyster and Molenaer prepared a joint will in November 1659, indicating that both were ill. While Molenaer survived, Leyster passed away three months later at the age of 50. She was buried on a farm in Heemstede, but the gravesite was lost when the area was developed. When Molenaer died nearly a decade later, an estate inventory revealed that the couple had collected many Dutch paintings from their artist friends, including Pieter Claesz and Jan van Goyen.
Leyster’s Artistic Process and Layered Meanings
Leyster’s works exhibit numerous pentimenti, indicating that she developed her compositions during the painting process rather than through preparatory drawings. Some of her pieces have been scrutinized using x-ray radiography and infrared, which have revealed alternative compositions that she initially considered but ultimately rejected and painted over.
For instance, infrared reflectography of her Self-Portrait (c. 1630) uncovered that the original subject facing the artist was a girl with red lips, which she later replaced with an image of a fiddler on an easel. Similarly, in A Boy and a Girl With a Cat and an Eel (c. 1625), the grey kitten was positioned in three different spots before ending up nestled in the crook of the mischievous boy’s elbow.
Leyster’s paintings often had multiple layers of meaning, conveying messages about both vice and virtue. Nearly two-thirds of her genre paintings depict figures engaged in activities like smoking, drinking, playing games, or making music, frequently accompanied by warnings about the consequences of such behaviors. In The Last Drop (c. 1629), for example, two young men who have indulged in a night of revelry are joined by a foreboding skeleton.
Death and Legacy of Judith Jans Leyster
Leyster died on February 10, 1660, in Heemstede, at the age of 50. Her artwork was largely forgotten after her death, and her entire oeuvre was attributed to her husband or Frans Hals. It was not until 1893, when art historian Cornelis Hofstede de Groot discovered one of her signed paintings and attributed it to her, that she was rediscovered.
Since then, her work has been highly regarded by art scholars and collectors. Her paintings are now held in prominent museum collections, including the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Louvre in Paris, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Leyster was one of the few Dutch women artists to achieve success in her lifetime. Her skill in painting, especially her genre works, was highly regarded by her contemporaries. She was also one of the first women to be admitted as a member of the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke, a significant accomplishment in a male-dominated field. Today, she is recognized as an important figure in the Dutch Golden Age of painting and a trailblazer for women in the arts.
