Catarina Ykens II (1659-1737)

• Was a Flemish painter.

• Catarina was born in Antwerp as the daughter of the painter Johannes Ykens and his second wife Barbara Brekevelt.

• She was the sister of Peter Ykens, a history and portrait painter.

• She apprenticed under her father.

• Became a master in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in the guild year 1687-1688.

• The record of the Guild mentions that she was a spiritual daughter, a term which refers to an unmarried Catholic woman who took a vow of chastity before a priest, usually obeying, not bound by vows, a superior, also known as her confessor.

• Her latest known dated work is A Nativity in Aix-en-Provence, signed and dated 1737.

• Her works are sometimes confused with the works of another Antwerp painter of the same name known as Catarina Ykens, who was the wife of the still life painter Frans Ykens.

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