LONDON.- A remarkable self portrait thought to be the first of an artist depicting herself at work at an easel will be a highlight of the first ever UK exhibition of the painter Catharina van Hemessen (1528–after 1566?), opening at the National Gallery on 4 March, just ahead of International Women's Day on 8 March 2027.

Catharina van Hemessen: Signature Works (4 March – 30 May 2027) will bring together for the first time, a significant group of the signed paintings of this striking artist, from international collections.

The Self Portrait (1548, Kunstmuseum Basel), coming to the UK for the first time, is thought to be the first artist's self portrait at an easel, regardless of gender. Created when she was just 20 years old, it shows van Hemessen holding her palette, brushes and a maulstick as she starts work on a painting. The portrait pioneered a common mode of self-representation among later women artists, such as Artemisia Gentileschi and Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun.

Working in Antwerp during the mid-16th century, van Hemessen is the earliest European female panel painter whose works can be identified without doubt. This is because she signed her paintings, proudly adding her name and declaring her authorship. Her self portrait, for example, carries the inscription Me pinxi ‘I painted myself’, together with her name.

Catharina van Hemessen was the daughter of Jan Sanders van Hemessen (about 1500–about 1557), a prominent Antwerp painter. Her father is believed to have been her teacher, and she may have collaborated in his workshop.

Best known for her small-scale portraits, all completed between the late 1540s and early 1550s, van Hemessen is the earliest woman artist in the National Gallery’s collection. She is one of only four living female painters mentioned by the influential Italian writer Lodovico Guicciardini as having worked in Antwerp in the 16th century, and the only one of them for whom an undisputable corpus of works can be established.

The exhibition will contain eight portraits; the National Gallery's Portrait of a Man and Portrait of a Woman, alongside the famous Self Portrait from the Kunstmuseum Basel; the pendant portraits of a man and woman from the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels; the Portrait of a Woman from the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle; the Portrait of a Woman at the Virginal on loan from the Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne; and the Portrait of a Woman, attributed to the painter from the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

Visitors will also be able to see another side of Catharina’s work, in the form of her devotional paintings with the loan of the Lamentation from The Snijders&Rockoxhuis and her large and ambitious Rest on the Flight to Egypt on loan from a private collection. The exhibition will also include a copy of Lodovico Guicciardini’s Descrittione di tutti i Paesi Bassi. First published in 1567, this book documented trade networks, commerce, science, literature and detailed information on Renaissance Flemish and Dutch artists. It is in this work that we first encounter Catharina van Hemessen and where her pre-eminent place as a woman artist was first established.

Dr Christine Seidel, Curator of Catharina van Hemessen. Signature Works, says:’Catharina van Hemessen’s significant beginnings in Antwerp, the most prolific centre of artistic production in northern Europe in the 16th century, secured her rank among the eminent women painters of the early modern period.’

Sir Gabriele Finaldi, Director, the National Gallery. London says: ‘The National Gallery is proud to be partnering with Museum Snijders&Rockoxhuis, Antwerp and The Bowes Museum on this important exhibition bringing together for the first time most of the signed works of Catharina van Hemessen, the earliest woman painter in our collection.’

This free exhibition opens at the National Gallery on 4 March 2027, coinciding with International Women's Day on 8 March 2027.

Catharina van Hemessen: Signature Works is curated by Dr Christine Seidel, Head of the collection of Flemish and Northern European Painting after 1500, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid.

Exhibition organised by the National Gallery, the Museum Snijders&Rockoxhuis, Antwerp and The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle

Van Hemessen & Father: The Antwerp Workshop of Jan and Catharina van Hemessen will open at Museum Snijders&Rockoxhuis, Antwerp from 15 October 2026 to 31 January 2027

Catharina van Hemessen: The Artist and Her World will open at the Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham from 5 June to 3 October 2027