Home / Arts and Entertainment / Forgotten Artist Catharina van Hemessen Gets Long Overdue Recognition
Forgotten Artist Catharina van Hemessen Gets Long Overdue Recognition
17 Oct
Summary
- A new exhibition honors 16th-century artist Catharina van Hemessen in Antwerp.
- Van Hemessen's work, once dismissed, is now celebrated by historians.
- Her artistic legacy was obscured by historical paternalism.
Catharina van Hemessen, a 16th-century artist, is finally gaining recognition for her work, which was long overshadowed by her father's legacy and historical oversight.
An exhibition titled "Van Hemessen and Father" is currently running in Antwerp, Belgium, displaying eleven of her nineteen known small-scale portraits and religious scenes. Some of her works are also slated to travel to London for a dedicated exhibition in March.
Despite her contemporary acclaim and role in her father's workshop, van Hemessen's historical record was often diminished. Historians in subsequent centuries described her work as "weak" or "naïve," or omitted it entirely.
Karolien De Clippel, a researcher who has studied van Hemessen since the 1990s, attributes the lack of historical interest to "paternalistic discourse." She notes the fortunate circumstance that van Hemessen signed her artworks, aiding in their rediscovery.
