ABSTRACT
It has been three centuries since the death of the versatile Dutch genre, portrait, and still-life painter Judith Leyster, but it was only during the last women's movement that the pioneer study of her works was finally made. In 1927, Juliane Harms discussed Leyster's life, arranged her works in chronological order, and provided the first published catalogue raisonne of her paintings. During her fifty-one years, Judith Leyster worked in Haarlem, Utrecht, and Amsterdam; presumably she knew the masters of each school, including Hals, Honthorst and Terbrugghen, and Rembrandt, respectively. Her familiarity with the subjects and with the lighting and compositional techniques of each school is evident in her works. The Proposition in the Mauritshuis, The Hague, confirms this view. The woman who is the recipient of a proposition or who is shown as an active member of a brothel is generally depicted as a more than willing participant.
