The Self-portrait by Catharina Van Hemessen (1528 – after 1583), signed and dated in 1548 (Öffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel) is the oldest surviving example in Western art of a self-portrait showing the painter at work (Plate 2.1). Three versions exist and indicate not only an original desire to broadcast the painter's image and distinctive physical and artistic features, but also to present her awareness of contemporary art theory, as represented visually by the tools, palette, and pose. Because of its many-layered meanings, the self-portrait is a fascinating example to consider within the history of painters’ social status as well as women's artistic lives in the Renaissance. My goal here is to focus on the working part of the self-portrait, the painteress’ tools, as denoting an important aspect of early Netherlandish art theory in visual form. I examine Catharina's Self-Portrait within the broader context of images of painters at work, and then suggest that the depiction of the tools – especially the palette – is not at all random but rather is designed to demonstrate knowledge of contemporary artistic discourses and assert a particular aspect of her status as a painter, a desire that becomes even more obvious when we compare the portrait to similar compositions.

A Woman Painter with an International Career

Daughter to Jan Sanders Van Hemessen (c.1500 – c.1556), one of Antwerp's leading artists of the time, Catharina was twenty when she painted her self-portrait in 1548, the same year her father became Dean of Antwerp's Guild of Saint Luke.