Katharina Pepijn or Catharina Pepijn[1] (baptized on 13 February 1619, Antwerp - 12 November 1688, Antwerp) was a Flemish painter who was known for her history paintings and portraits.[2]
Life
Very little is known about the life and training of Katharina Pepijn. She was the daughter of Marten Pepijn and Marie Huybrechts.[3] She likely trained with her father, a prominent painter in Antwerp.[4] In 1654, she became a member of the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke as a 'wijnmeester', i.e. the daughter of a master.[5]
Very little is known about her career. At the end of her life, she was renting a house in a beguinage. She was taken ill and was cared for by a nurse. After she died, she was buried at Antwerp Cathedral.[6]
Work
Katharina Pepijn was known in her time as a history and portrait painter.[4]
Currently, only two works are attributed to Katharina Pepijn. Both are portraits of abbots of St. Michael's Abbey, Antwerp, executed with oil on canvas in the 1650s. That of Abbot Johannes Chrysostomus vander Sterre was made shortly after his death in 1652. The other is of Abbot Norbertus van Couwerven. Both paintings were originally kept at St. Michael's Abbey.[5] Her portraits are in the style of Rubens and van Dyck.[7]
^Marten Pepijn at the Netherlands Institute for Art History (in Dutch)
^ abCatharina Pepyn, Marten’s dochter, in Album der St.-Lukasgilde : uitgegeven op last harer letterkundige afdeeling de violieren, Antwerp: J.-E. Buschmann (1855), p. 56 (in Dutch)
^Katlijne Van Der Stighelen, Mirjam Westen, Maaike Meijer, A chacun sa grace: Femmes artistes en Belgique et au Pays-Bas 1500-1950, Ludion, 1999, p. 170 (in French)
^Ursula Härting. "Pepyn, Maarten." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 16 March 2015