In my master thesis, I analyze five self-portraits of women artists through which I explore what self-portraits tell us about the position of women artists, about their access to artistic education and how the social status of women artists influenced their self-portraits. The self-portrait type combined with the depiction of the painting process was first depicted by Caterina van Hemessen, whose self-portrait started a revolution and a surge of such depictions, among which were the self-portraits of Judith Leyster, Artemisia Gentileschi, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard and Laura Knight, which are also discussed in the thesis. Through the analysis of their works, I also address the question of their strategies of self-promotion and representation and how they wanted to present themselves to the public through their depictions of selves.
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