Anna Maria van Schurman (1607 – 1678)

• Was a Dutch painter, engraver, poet, philosopher, and feminist writer.
• She was a highly educated woman, who excelled in art, music, and literature.
• She became a polyglot proficient in fourteen languages.
• She was the first woman to unofficially study at a Dutch university.
• Van Schurman was born in Cologne.
• At four years old she could read.
• When she was six, she had mastered creating highly intricate paper cut-outs.
• In the 1630s she studied engraving with Magdalena van de Passe.
• She painted, especially portraits, becoming the first known Dutch painter to use pastel in a portrait.
• She gained honorary admission to the St. Luke Guild of painters in 1643.
• The displayed painting is a crop from: Jan Lievens, Portrait of Anna Maria van Schurman, 1649.
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