Van Hemessen was the daughter of painter, Jan Sanders van Hemessen, who was her teacher. Her self portrait is probably her best known work but she went on to a healthy career making portraits of wealthy men and women, usually posed against a dark or neutral background. She was a member in good standing of the Guild of Saint Luke in Antwerp and was teacher to three male students, which indicate she was respected and successful. She gained an important patron in Maria of Austria, Regent of the Low Countries. When Maria resigned her post and returned to Spain, Caterina and her husband were invited to accompany her and did so. Two years later in 1558 when Maria died, Caterina was awarded a generous pension and she and her husband returned to Antwerp. [http://womenintheactofpainting.blogspot.nl/2012/10/] Caterina, or Catharina van Hemessen (1528 - after 1565); Flemish Renaissance painter. She is the earliest female Flemish painter for whom there is verifiable extant work. She is mainly known for a series of small scale female portraits completed between the late 1540s and early 1550s and a few religious compositions. Van Hemessen is often given the distinction of creating the first self-portrait of an artist (of either gender) depicted seated at an easel. This portrait, created in 1548, shows the artist in the early stages of painting a portrait and is now part of the collection of the Kunstmuseum Basel. Other paintings by van Hemessen are in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and in the National Gallery, London. A number of obstacles stood in the way of contemporary women who wished to become painters. Their training would involve both the dissection of cadavers and the study of the nude male form, while the system of apprenticeship meant that the aspiring artist would need to live with an older artist for 4–5 years, often beginning from the age of 9-15. For these reasons, female artists were extremely rare, and... [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catharina_van_Hemessen] undefined

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