It is hard to believe that this piece was at some point attributed to various other Dutch golden age (male) painters, including Frans Hals. Judith Leyster (1609-1660) was well-known in her time, and officially registered with the Guild of Saint Luke's in Haarlem, and there are even numerous court records of her various legal doings (including a successful suit of Frans Hals for apprentice-stealing.) Yet a few centuries later it was as though she had not existed. I find this baffling and somewhat chilling. As a child who was frequently taken to art museums I recall hearing there was some controversy about this work, and a large old book (with slightly blurry tipped-in plates) that resided on my parent's bookshelf, did indeed attribute this piece to Hals. (I am 49. The book was probably a few decades older.) At any rate, sometime in the last half century Leyster's existence was re-discovered, her oeuvre re-examined, and her reputation re-established. Golden indeed! ...Contrary to the common mythos, in the vast majority of cases we don't hear that having children brought these women's careers to an end. Far from it. However, in the case of Judith Leyster that does seem to have been the case. Once she married and had children (5) she stopped producing known work, although some historians have posited that she then assisted her lesser-known artist-husband with his work. I wonder if she just became submerged by a cascade of major life events (childcare, moving, lawsuits, sickness, etc.) from which she did not have a chance to break free before she died, at the relatively young age of 50. I will have to read a more detailed biography and see what her biographers say... [http://womenintheactofpainting.blogspot.nl/2012/10/] Dr Woodall said that far from seeing the women self portraitists in the exhibition as victims, she regarded them as resourceful and often witty challengers of artistic and social convention.... Judith Leyster shows herself at the easel painting a genre scene of a man playing the fiddle, poking her brush in the direction of the fiddler's crotch and having a good laugh. (https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/oct/17/gender.arts)