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Portrait of Rachel da Costa with the Child Catharina Suasso
Catherine da Costa
1745
Here, Catherine da Costa, the first known female Jewish painter, has painted her daughter and granddaughter to resemble a Madonna and child. An unidentified woman leans over the infant, seemingly about to offer her a basket of flowers.
Here, Catherine da Costa, the first known female Jewish painter, has painted her daughter and granddaughter to resemble a Madonna and child. An unidentified woman leans over the infant, seemingly about to offer her a basket of flowers.
Among the portrait miniatures of family members that Catherine da Costa painted is this locket portrait of her son, Abraham da Costa (b. 1704), when he was ten years old.
Berl had no father. His mother was very poor and had to go to strangers to make money for bread. Berl used to stay at home alone, and waited for hours for his mother. He had no sisters or brothers, so…
This calligraphic print appears in Ben Shahn’s book Alphabet of Creation, based on a tale about how God created the world through the letters of the Hebrew alphabet taken from the Zohar, a thirteenth…
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.
Among the portrait miniatures of family members that Catherine da Costa painted is this locket portrait of her son, Abraham da Costa (b. 1704), when he was ten years old.
Berl had no father. His mother was very poor and had to go to strangers to make money for bread. Berl used to stay at home alone, and waited for hours for his mother. He had no sisters or brothers, so…
This calligraphic print appears in Ben Shahn’s book Alphabet of Creation, based on a tale about how God created the world through the letters of the Hebrew alphabet taken from the Zohar, a thirteenth…