500-Year-Old Self-Portrait Gets Renaissance Painter Recognized

At just 20 years old, Catharina van Hemessen did something no artist had done before. She painted herself at her easel, brush in hand, and boldly declared in Latin across the panel: "I, Catharina van Hemessen, painted myself."

That 1548 self-portrait broke new ground. It inspired generations of artists from Vincent van Gogh to David Hockney to paint themselves at work.

Yet for nearly 500 years, van Hemessen's name was almost completely forgotten. "She was almost eliminated in writing about art," says Karolien De Clippel, head of collections at Belgium's Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp.

Now, a new exhibition in Antwerp is finally giving this Flemish master her due. "Van Hemessen and Father" features more than 30 works by Catharina and her father Jan, who taught her to paint.

Born into a wealthy Antwerp family in 1528, van Hemessen had advantages many women artists lacked. The cultural hub gave her access to education and materials, and her father welcomed her into his workshop.

New research for the exhibition reveals just how talented she was. Experts found van Hemessen's brushwork hidden in the background figures of her father's larger paintings. They even discovered a hidden image of a kneeling woman beneath the surface of one of her religious scenes.

Of her 19 confirmed paintings, 14 are signed with her name and the year. This level of self-documentation was rare for any artist in the 1500s, let alone a woman.

In 1554, van Hemessen married court musician Kerstiaen de Morijn and moved to Spain. While her husband served Mary of Hungary as an organist, historians believe van Hemessen's artistic reputation also caught the regent's attention.

Curiously, no paintings from her Spanish years have survived. She may have stopped painting after leaving her family workshop, though the reasons remain unknown.

Why This Inspires

Van Hemessen's story reminds us how many brilliant voices have been lost to history simply because they were overlooked. Her bold self-portrait wasn't just a technical achievement. It was a declaration that she belonged in the story of art.

The exhibition team's dedication to uncovering her hidden contributions shows how important it is to keep looking for these missing voices. Every discovered brushstroke adds dimension to our understanding of who created the culture we inherited.

After closing in Antwerp in January 2027, the exhibition travels to London's National Gallery, where even more people can finally meet the woman who painted herself into history.