Portrait of Dr. Fernando Mendes

Catherine da Costa

1721

Full-body portrait painting of man wearing periwig and holding a book. — Among Catherine da Costa’s surviving paintings is the full-length portrait of her father, Dr. Fernando Mendes (1647–1724). Mendes was a prominent Jewish physician, who attended both King Charles II and his wife, Catherine of Braganza. He and his family were Portuguese crypto-Jews. He was brought to England by Queen Catherine from Portugal when she married into the English royal family.

Among Catherine da Costa’s surviving paintings is the full-length portrait of her father, Dr. Fernando Mendes (1647–1724). Mendes was a prominent Jewish physician, who attended both King Charles II and his wife, Catherine of Braganza. He and his family were Portuguese crypto-Jews. He was brought to England by Queen Catherine from Portugal when she married into the English royal family.

Credits

With permission of the Trustees of the Spanish and Portuguese Sephardi Community of London, photo by Smilynne Joukovski.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.

Self-Portrait

In a self-portrait from ca. 1721, Catherine da Costa depicts herself at work in a studio, painting a portrait of mother and child that resembles paintings of the Madonna and child.

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Collage of father and child holding a baby goat under rainbow arch with Yiddish words.

Ḥad Gadya, Gekoyft der tate far tsvey gilden eyn tsigele (Father Bought a Kid for Two Zuzim)

Ḥad Gadya (One Little Goat) is a song customarily sung at the end of the Passover seder. It recounts a sequence of events beginning with a young goat purchased by the protagonist’s father that is then…

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Painting of bearded man in glasses and hat seated at table with cigarette in one hand and Yiddish newspaper in the other.

The Watchmaker

Like other paintings by Yehudah Pen, The Watchmaker depicts an encounter between a traditional Jew and modernity. Here, a traditionally dressed watchmaker reads the Warsaw Yiddish newspaper Haynt…

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Creator Bio

Catherine da Costa

1679–1756

Catherine da Costa was an English miniature painter, commonly recognized as the first known female Jewish painter. Likewise, she was the first English-born Jewish artist and the second English-born female artist in recorded history. Da Costa’s father, Fernando Mendez, who was of Portuguese origin, was physician to Charles II and named his daughter after Queen Catherine. Da Costa married a wealthy merchant, Anthony Moses da Costa. She studied under the famous drawing master and engraver Bernard de jongere Lens and painted miniatures of her family and other members of the Jewish community. In a self-portrait from ca. 1721, she depicts herself at work in a studio, painting a portrait of mother and child that resembles paintings of Madonna and child. Among her works is also a painting of her father in full eighteenth-century dress, a miniature of her son, Abraham, and a portrait of the merchant Francis (Daniel) Salvador.