Mayken Verhulst

Mayken Verhulst (1518–1599) was a sixteenth-century miniature, tempera and watercolor painter, identified by Lodovico Guicciardini in 1567 as one of the most important female artists in the Low Countries.

Life

Mayken Verhulst was born in Mechelen in 1518. She was the second wife of Pieter Coecke van Aelst, mother-in-law of Pieter Brueghel the Elder and, according to Karel van Mander, the first teacher of her grandsons Pieter Brueghel the Younger and Jan Brueghel the Elder. No works survive that can be securely attributed to her, although she is frequently identified as the person behind several works assigned to the Master of the Brunswick Monogram.^[1] She might also have been the author of a painting in the Kunsthaus Zürich with a self portrait with her husband (panel, 50.5 x 59 cm).^[2] Following Pieter Coecke's death in 1550, she likely oversaw the publication of a large woodcut series Ces Moeurs et Fachons de Faire des Turcz (Manners and Customs of the Turks) (1553).^[3] Verhulst died in Mechelen in 1599.

Notes

1. ^ Bergmans, passim. This is mentioned by most subsequent studies about Verhulst although always with conditions.
2. ^ King, p. 394
3. ^ Op de Beeck, passim; also see, "Woodcut".

Sources

• Bergmans, Simone. "Le Problème de Jan van Hemessen, monogrammatiste de Brunswick," in Revue belge d'archéologie et d'histoire de l'art, vol. 24, 1955, pp. 133–57.
• King, Catherine. "Looking a Sight: Sixteenth-Century Portraits of Woman Artists," in Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, vol. 58, 1995, pp. 381-406.
• Op de Beeck, Jan, Mayken Verhulst (1518-1599). The Turkish Manners of an Artistic Lady. Mechelen: Museum Het Zotte Kunstkabinet, 2005. ISBN 90-9019982-9.
• "Woodcut offers panoramic view of 16th-century Muslim life." Yale Bulletin & Calendar 18 January 2002. (accessed 21 May 2007)

Persondata
Name	Verhulst, Mayken
Alternative names
Short description	painter
Date of birth	1518
Place of birth	Mechelen
Date of death	1599
Place of death	Mechelen