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Self-Portrait
Catherine da Costa
ca. 1720
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.
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.
Time with his pointed shafts has hit my heart
and split my gut, laid open my entrails,
landed me a blow that will not heal,
knocked me down, left me in lasting pain.
Time wounded me…
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.
Time with his pointed shafts has hit my heart
and split my gut, laid open my entrails,
landed me a blow that will not heal,
knocked me down, left me in lasting pain.
Time wounded me…