The first-ever exhibition dedicated to Catharina van Hemessen, Europe's most important early female painter, will open at the Snijders&Rockox House in Antwerp (15 October 2026 – 31 January 2027) before traveling to the National Gallery in London (4 March – 30 May 2027). The show will reunite most of her surviving works for the first time in nearly 500 years, including her groundbreaking 1548 self-portrait at the Kunstmuseum Basel, which is the earliest known self-portrait by a female artist and the earliest surviving oil painting depicting an artist at work. Archival research on her family is underway, and the exhibition will also feature works by her father, Jan Sanders van Hemessen.
This exhibition matters because it brings long-overdue recognition to a pioneering female Old Master who has remained relatively obscure despite her historic achievements. Van Hemessen's self-portrait is not only a milestone for women in art but also a crucial document of artistic practice in the 16th century, showing an artist actively painting at her easel. The show's two-venue format—a comprehensive presentation in Antwerp and a focused display in London—will allow broad audiences to reassess her legacy, while the planned technical analysis of multiple versions of her self-portrait could yield new insights into her working methods.