Judith leyster signature

By Karen Chernick. The brood eventually adopted Leyster as their surname, naming themselves after their brewery on Bakenessergracht, and lived comfortably until Jan had to declare bankruptcy in It was around then that Judith and her siblings were put to work to help cover family expenses. There are two possible ways she received her artistic training, but neither can be confirmed—Leyster apprenticed under either Frans Pietersz de Grebber or Hals.

Leyster started monogramming her works in , not long after entering the workforce. One of her earliest surviving signed works is The Jolly Toper , depicting a smiling man showing us his now-empty jug, his ruddy cheeks matching the feather that slants downward from his cap. To be considered a master painter eligible to join the guild, candidates had to have studied for three years and apprenticed for at least one.

A year after joining the prestigious guild, Leyster opened her own workshop and instructed students. This was a breach of procedure—the move had not received guild permission—and instead of letting it slide, Leyster took it up with the guild. A few of her works have been studied with x-ray radiography and infrared, exposing alternative compositions that Leyster considered but rejected and painted over.

Almost two-thirds of her genre paintings include figures smoking, drinking, playing games, or making music, often with a warning about the consequences of such mischiefs, as in The Last Drop c. Leyster was 26 years old when she wed Molenaer, a fellow painter from Haarlem who produced genre paintings, portraits, landscapes, and religious works.

Judith leyster the proposition

Hals painted pendant portraits of the two, likely the year they wed. Leyster and Molenaer spent most of their married life in Haarlem and Amsterdam. One of these is a botanical illustration for a tulip sales catalog, drawn around the time her daughter Helena was born. In November Leyster and Molenaer prepared a joint will, suggesting that they were both ill.