{
  "id": 15910635,
  "title": "She Painted the First Known Self-Portrait of an Artist at Work—and Signed It—Nearly 500 Years Ago. Who Was Catharina van Hemessen?",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/21/she-painted-the-first-known-self-portrait-of-an-artist-at-work-and",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-10-21T16:01:03.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Smithsonian",
    "slug": "smithsonian",
    "url": "https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/she-painted-first-known-self-portrait-an-artist-at-work-and-signed-it-nearly-500-years-ago-who-was-catharina-van-hemessen-180989724/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Catharina van Hemessen, born in 1528, was a pioneering Flemish artist who painted the earliest known self-portrait of an artist at work in 1548. Donning a black gown with red velvet sleeves and modestly covering her hair, van Hemessen gazes beyond the viewer while working on an unfinished canvas. Her groundbreaking self-portrait set the stage for later artists like Artemisia Gentileschi, Vincent van Gogh, and David Hockney. Despite her contributions to the discipline, van Hemessen has been largely overlooked for nearly 500 years. A new exhibition, \"Van Hemessen and Father,\" held at the Snijders and Rockoxhuis museum in Antwerp, aims to restore her to the art history canon. The show features over 30 works by van Hemessen and her father, Jan van Hemessen, with new research revealing her substantial contribution to her father's workshop. Van Hemessen was one of several artistically inclined siblings and likely had greater access to education due to her birth in the cultural center of Antwerp. Her earliest known works date to 1548, and she married musician Kerstiaen de Morijn in 1554, eventually relocating to Spain. However, none of her surviving works date to this period, suggesting she may have stopped painting after entering Mary of Hungary's service. Van Hemessen's date of death remains unknown, but she was still living in 1567. Her story stands out as an exceptional case of a woman painter with a surviving body of work during a time when few women were employed as professional artists.",
  "summary": "Few women worked as professional artists in the 16th century. A new exhibition in Antwerp, Belgium, seeks to restore this Flemish painter to the pantheon of art history giants",
  "key_points": [
    "Catharina van Hemessen painted first known self-portrait of artist at work in 1548.",
    "Gazed beyond viewer while working on unfinished canvas, black gown with red sleeves.",
    "New Antwerp exhibition aims to restore her to art history canon."
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}