Neighborhood gives Haarlem painter Judith Leyster her own facade stone

The wall where the gable stone will be unveiled on Sunday afternoon belongs to the house of Tessa van Daalen and Frido Roodenberg. Their children and some other neighborhood children cut the string of the canvas. But it was actually the idea of ​​neighbor Connie Valkhoff to brighten up a blank wall next to her house with a grand painting by the artist.

She approached draftsman Eric Coolen, who talked her into placing a facing brick. “This is a wall that is often kicked against and that is a shame for such a large, expensive mural,” he says. The gable stone hangs fairly high and so the effigy of Judith Leyster is now reasonably safe.

Two of Leyster’s most famous paintings now hang in the Rijksmuseum’s Hall of Fame, and her self-portrait hangs in The National Gallery of Modern Art in Washington. The recognition for Leyster is more than justified, says Evelyn Cnossen. On Sunday afternoon, the history teacher of the Eerste Christian Lyceum and tour guide of the Rijksmuseum will tell the residents of Judith Leysterstraat more about the woman after whom their street is named. “Before Rembrandt she already painted with light and shadow!”

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Judith Leyster is therefore the only female painter from Western Europe who has been admitted to the Haarlem St Luke’s Guild of Master Painters through a master proof of the above self-portrait. “And that meant that she was allowed to run her own studio with students,” Cnossen tells the local residents.

Cool

Tessa, resident of the house where Judith Leyster’s facing brick now hangs, thinks it’s cool that this female artist decorates the wall. Her front door is on Gerrit van Heesstraat, “but I think it’s a nice feminist gesture that the plaque is by Judith Leyster.” The entire neighborhood has paid for the placement of the facing brick through crowdfunding. The De Nieuwe Gracht Productions Foundation has financed the making of the stone.

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Façade stone walk

Martin Scheringa of the Haarlem Facade Stone Association Foundation will also come and have a look. He is pleased that Haarlem has again acquired a gable stone and will include the description and location on the website of the Historical Association Haerlem.

“Haarlem has about 100 old facing bricks from before 1850,” says Scheringa. “In French times, such a stone instead of a house number indicated where you lived.” But in the meantime he also knows 300 modern bricks and Judith Leyster’s is number 301 as far as he’s concerned. And this one may also be included in one of the stone walks set out by the Haerlem Historical Association.

A salient detail is that it is clear in the facing brick in which period it was made. “We made a green coronavirus in it,” says creator Eric Coolen. “And a cat, because they roam around a lot in this street, I understand.”