Hi, to all of you that are interested in artist and their works of art, have been busy but have not disappeared tho. Judith Jans Leyster was born in Haarlem, the Netherlands, in July 1609, the eighth child of nine. Art historians think that Judith Leyster was trained in painting from a young age perhaps studying with Frans Pietersz de Grebber, a well-respected Haarlem-based painter. Her mother, Trijn Jaspers, was a weaver, and her father was a brewer who was born as Jan Willemsz but changed it to "Leyster," in 1603 In 1629, Leyster's first known paintings, Serenade and Jolly Topper , are signed with her very particular monogram: JL accompanied by a star, suggesting the meaning of her name. In 1633, Leyster applied to join Haarlem's Guild of St. Luke's, an organisation for painters at the beginning of their careers. She was accepted into the guild and in that same year set up her own studio. "Though it is dangerous to come to conclu