The Proposition

genre

Although a number of works have been ascribed to Leyster since her rediscovery in the 1890s, the number attributable to her is small. Apart from a few Halsian portraits, a single still-life, and one or two watercolours of tulips, they are genre paintings. The earliest secure ones dated 1629 clearly show that from the start Frans Hals was a principal source of her themes and style.

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About the Artist

Judith Leyster

1609 – 1660

Dutch painter of genre scenes, portraits, and still-life, probably a pupil of Frans Hals in Haarlem, where she spent most of her career (she also worked in Amsterdam). In 1636 she married Jan Miense Molenaer, with whom she shared a studio, using the same models and props. Leyster was one of Hals's best followers and her work has sometimes passed as his, an example being the Lute Player in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Her monogram includes a star, a play on 'Ley/ster' (lode star).

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