Recent evidence suggests that Mayken Verhulst (ca. 1518–1599), the mother-in-law of Pieter Brueghel the Elder, authored works long attributed to the anonymous Brunswick Monogrammist. A key painting, *Ecce Homo* from the National Museum in Gdańsk, bears a unique double signature combining the initials of her husband, Pieter Coecke van Aelst, with her family name “Bessemer,” indicating her authorial role within the workshop. This discovery, detailed in an essay from the exhibition *The Woman Question 1550–2025* at the Museum of Modern Art Warsaw, challenges centuries of art-historical attribution.
This matters because it repositions a 16th-century woman artist from obscurity to a central figure in the evolution of Netherlandish landscape and genre painting, correcting a long-standing scholarly bias. If confirmed, the attribution would rewrite a significant chapter of art history, highlighting the hidden contributions of women in early modern workshops and prompting a broader reassessment of anonymous works.