Two Children with a Cat

Judith Jansdr. Leyster
c. 1629
Oil on canvas, 61 x 52 cm.
Private Collection
Judith Jansdr. Leyste, Two Children with a cat

Judith Jansdr. LEYSTER
Haarlem 1609–Heemsteede 1660

Judith Leyster was born in Haarlem and baptized on 28 July, 1609. She was the daughter of a
Flemish-born brewer, who took his surname from his brewery in Haarlem, the Leyster (or
Lodestar). One of Frans Hals's most talented followers, she was also precocious; when only
eighteen she was mentioned as one of Haarlem's artists by Samuel Ampzing. The following year, 1628, her parents moved to Vreeland, near Utrecht, where she seems to have discovered the work of ter Brugghen. She was a member of the Haarlem guild by 1633 and soon had pupils. In 1636 she married the painter Jan Molenaer, and the following year they moved to Amsterdam. In 1648 they moved to Heemstede, near Haarlem, where she eventually died in 1660, eight years before her husband.

from:
The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer, John Nash, London, 1972