Hemessen, Caterina van (c. 1528-c. 1587)

Flemish painter. Born in Antwerp, Belgium, around 1528; died in Spain, around 1587; daughter of Jan van Hemessen (a painter); married Chrétien de Morien (a musician), in 1554; no children.

One of the first Flemish women artists ever documented, Caterina van Hemessen was the daughter of Jan van Hemessen (1500–1563), a notable artist of the period. Ten paintings, dated between 1548 and 1552, have been attributed to van Hemessen, eight small portraits of women and two religious works probably based on prints. In 1554, the artist married Chrétien de Morien, organist at Antwerp Cathedral, after which she apparently gave up painting. In 1556, the couple joined the court of Queen Mary of Hungary (1505–1558), former regent of the Netherlands, who died two years later, leaving them a generous pension.

It is generally believed that van Hemessen was trained by her father, although in style her work reflects little of his influence. Her religious paintings, among which Christ and St. Veronica (undated), is representative, are restricted and less significant than her portraits, which Germaine Greer , in The Obstacle Race, describes as kind of expanded miniatures, "typical in their abstracted, introverted expression, limited colour range and restricted lighting of the Flemish portrait tradition as it was to develop." Ann Harris and Linda Nochlin point out that two van Hemessen portraits—Self-Portrait and Young Woman Playing the Virginals (a likeness of her older sister), wood panels of equal size and dated 1548—were painted with the two women facing left and right, so they could be hung as a pair. The authors also note that Hemessen, like many of her contemporaries, had difficulty drawing hands. Though van Hemessen gave up painting before she had time to mature, her work adds significantly to the substantiation of the ten or so women artists that were active in Flanders during the mid-16th century.

sources:

Greer, Germaine. The Obstacle Race. NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1979.

Harris, Ann Sutherland, and Linda Nochlin. Women Artists 1550–1950. LA County Museum of Art: Knopf, 1976.

Barbara Morgan , Melrose, Massachusetts