Sofonisba Anguissola (1532–1625), Self-Portrait at the Easel, c.1556, Oil on canvas, 66 × 57 cm, The National Gallery, Prague (Waldstein Riding School), on short-term loan from Łańcut Castle, Poland
This striking self-portrait, painted when Sofonisba Anguissola was in her early twenties, is one of the earliest known depictions of a woman artist actively at work. Seated at her easel, Anguissola presents herself in modest yet noble attire, brush in hand, painting a tender Madonna and Child. The composition is carefully constructed: she turns her gaze outward towards the viewer, confidently claiming her dual identity as a devout noblewoman and a professional artist. The act of painting a sacred image within the portrait underscores her virtue and piety, while also signalling her intellectual autonomy and technical skill.
Created at a time when women were excluded from formal training and denied access to life drawing, the work is quietly radical. Anguissola did not depict herself as an object of beauty or desire, but as an artist engaged in the creative act. In doing so, she boldly inserted herself into a profession largely closed to women. The painting functioned as both a self-portrait and a visual argument for her right to be taken seriously as an artist.
It helped cement her early reputation and is now widely recognised as a foundational image in the history of women’s self-representation in art. Its importance lies not only in its rarity, but in its clarity of message: Anguissola presents herself not as a passive subject or idealised figure, but as a working painter—an active participant in the creation of meaning and a deliberate challenger of the limits imposed on women in her time.
