Josefa de Ayala (1630-1684): Josefa de Ayala was born in Seville, Spain. Her father was a Portuguese artist named Balthasar Gomes Figueira. Some time in her adult life, Alyala returned to Portugal where she conducted he professional life as an artist. Her versatility is demonstrated by the range of genres she undertook including still life studies, portraits, religious themes, and allegorical subjects. One of her surviving paintings is that of the Marriage of Saint Catherine now at the Museu Nacional de Arte in Antigua, Lisbon. During her life time, Ayala was sufficiently well-regarded as an artist to be elected to the Lisbon Academy.
References: Women Artists: An Illustrated History by Nancy G. Heller, p. 48;

Mary Beale(1632-1697): English portrait painter. An independent professional artist she had a prolific career. One record kept by her husband Charles Beale establishes that in one year alone she completed eighty-three commissioned works. One of Mary and Charles Beale's sons, also known as Charles Beale went on to a career as a painter. Mary Beale also taught art and oneof her students, Sarah Cuties eventually became a well-known painter. Beale worked in several media including oils, pastels and water colors. Her studies of children were especially well-received.
References: Seeing Ourselves: Women's Self-Portraits by Frances Borzello, pp. 62-67; Women Artists: An Illustrated History by Nancy G. Heller, p.47; Mary Beale: Paintress 1633-1699 by C. Reeve; Portrait Painting in England: Studies in the Technical Literature Before 1700 by M.K. Talley, pp. 270-305.

Rosalba Carriera (1675-1757): Rosalba Carriera was born in Venice. She pioneered the new genre of portraits done in pastel. She began her career painting snuff boxes, but her skills as a portrait artist were so highly respected that it became a standard practise to call other women artists an English Carriera, a Dutch Carriera, a German Carriera, etc. Her portraits of noble or wealthy Europeans made her famous all over the continent. She was elected to the Academie Royale in 1720 .
References: Seeing Ourselves: Women's Self-Portraits by Frances Borzello, pp.69-71 Women, Art and Society, by Whitney Chadwick, pp.141-144; Women Artists: An Illustrated History by Nancy G. Heller, pp.55-56; Women Artists in History, by Wendy Slatkin, pp.68-72.

Elisabeth Sophie Cheron (1648-1711): Cheron was born and lived in Paris. She received her education from her father Henri Cheron and was equally gifted as a painter as she was a muscian and poet. Following her marriage to Jacques le Hay, she became known under her married name. Cheron was known best as portrait painter, but works on a vaiety of subject were also part of her repertoir. She was elected to the Academie Royale in 1672.
References: Seeing Ourselves: Women's Self-Portraits by Frances Borzello, p.52; Women, Art and Society by Whitney Chadwick, p.65.

Giovanna Fratellini (166-1731): Giovanna Fratellini was born and lived in Florence, Italy. She was a lady-in -waiting to the Duchess of Tuscany and worked as a commissioned artist to the Florentine nobility.
References: Seeing Ourselves: Women's Self-Portraits by Frances Borzello, p.62.

Artemesia Gentileschi (1593-1652): Artemesia Gentileschi was born in Rome. She was the daughter of the artist Orazio Gentileschi who was part of the Caravaggio movement. She became the first woman elected to the Academy of Design. She also worked with her father, who was one of her teachers, on his commissioned work for Charles I. The strength and power of her paintings, such as Judith Decapitating Holeferenes, coupled with the technical skill with which her paintings are executed established her as a major painter. By 1630, Gentileschi had established herself in Naples enjoying both the patronage of the nobility and the status of a majore celebrity.
References: Seeing Ourselves: Women's Self-Portraits by Frances Borzello, pp. 53-56; Women, Art and Society by Whitney Chadwick, pp. 105-113; Artemesia Gentileschi, by Mary D. Garrad; Women Artists: An Illustrated History by Nancy G. Heller, pp. 29-32; Women Artists in History, by Wendy Slatkin, pp. 44-50.

Esther Kello, aka Esther Inglis (1571-1624): Inglis was born in France and taught by her mother. Primarily a calligrapher, Inglis (she married Bartholomew Kello and is sometimes known by her married name. She enjoyed the patronage of the Scottish and Englisih aristocracy.
References: Seeing Ourselves: Women's Self-Portraits by Frances Borzello, p. 47.

Anne Killigrew (1660-1685): Killigrrew was the daughter of Henry Killigrewe who was in the service of the Duke of York. She herself was a maid of honor to the Duchess of York. Little is known about her training but she painted the portraits of several of the members of the royal household including that of James II. Killigrew was also a poet. She died at the age of twenty-five of smallpox and was eulogized by Dryden for her iomaginative rendition of landscapes. References:
Seeing Ourselves: Women's Self-Portraits by Frances Borzello, pp. 58-59.

Judith Leyster (1609-1660): Judith Leyster was born in Haarlem. She was a portrait painter but also painted scenary and still life. There are conjectures that she may have been a student of Hans Hal and with Franz pietersz de Grebber. The records indicatre she had several students which indicates that she must have been sufficeintly well-regarded as an artist. after her marriage to another artist Jan Miense Molenart, she seems to have slipped into oblivion. her early work indicates the influence of the Utrecht Carravagio school and that of Hals.
References: Seeing Ourselves: Women's Self-Portraits by Frances Borzello, pp.52-55; Women, Art and Society by Whitney Chadwick, pp.23-24; Judith Leyster: A Dutch Master and Her Work, by Frans Halsmuseum; Judith Leyster: A Woman Painter in Holland's Golden Age by Frima Fox Hofrichter; Women Artists: An Illustrated History by Nancy G. Heller, pp.44-46; Women Artists in History, by Wendy Slatkin, pp. 56-61.

Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717): Maria Sibylla Merian was born in Germany the daughter of a Dutch mother and Swiss father. She is described as one of the very best botanical and natural life artists of her time. After her father's death--he was an engraver by profession--Merian's mother married Jacob Marrell an artist of some note who specialized in painting flowers. Merian produced a three-volume catalogue of flower engravings under the title Neues Blumen Buch or The New Flower Book. She also published a three volume set of insect paintings between 1679-1717. These were drawn from direct observation and were the foundations of the biologist Linnaues' later work on the classification of biological species. in 1699 Merian and her two daughters undertook a journey to the Ducth colony of Surinam in South America. This was a scientific expedition sponsored by the city of Amsterdam. The professional dedication and courage it took for a woman to undertake such a long, dangerous journey to a tropical colony in those times may well be imagined. Merian stayed two years in Surinam during which time collected a large number of plant, animal and insect specimens. She was also one of the first Europeans to observe and make notes of the local people and their customs. The result of this expediction was the publication two years later of the work Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamsium. This masterpiece consisted of plates engraved from Merian's meticulously detailed water color paintings of the plants and insect of Surinam.
References: Women, Art and Society by Whitney Chadwick, pp. 133-137; Women Artists: An Illustrated History by Nancy G. Heller, pp.36-37; Women Artists in History, by Wendy Slatkin, pp.61-63; Women on the Margins:Three Seventeenth-Century Lives, by Natalie Zemon Davis.

Web Sites About Maria Sybylla Merian
Maria Merian at the National Museum of Women Artists
Maria Merian Center for Global Environmental Education
Resources on Maria Merian

Louise Moillon (1610-1696): Louise Moillon is regarded by some critics as perhaps the finest French still life painter of the 17th century. In 1973, one of Moillon's paintings was sold at an auction at Sotheby's for a hundred and twenty thousand dollars. Loiuse Moillon was born in Paris, the daughter of a minor painter and art dealer. Her step-father, Francios Garnier was also an artist and art dealer and is thought to have overseen her education. Still life paintings in Moillon's time was not well-regarded but it was a genre with which Moillon excelled and
References: Women Artists: An Illustrated History by Nancy G. Heller, pp. 37-38.

Maria van Oosterwyck (1630-1693): Maria van Oosterwyck was born in Nootdrop the daughter of a Dutch Reformed minister. Her work was influenced by her teacher, the famous flower painter Jan Davidsz de Heem of Antwerp. van Oosterwyk's still life studies include a range of objects such as flowers, glassware, coins, musical instruments etc. Her works are characterized by immense detail and by the skilled rendition of light and reflections. van Oosterwyk enjoyed the patronage of European royalty including Louis IX of France, the Elector of Saxony, Emperor Leopold and King William of England.
References: Seeing Ourselves: Women's Self-Portraits by Frances Borzello, p. 59; Women, Art and Society by Whitney Chadwick, p.136.

Teresa del Po (1649-1716): Teresa del Po was born Rome of a family of artists. Her father Pietro del Po who was an artist taught her and her two brothers Andrea and Giacomo who would have careers as painters themselve. Teresa's daughter Victoria would later also become an artist. Po's extant aaorks seems to show that she specialized in mythological scenes such as her painting of Apollo and Daphne. She was elected to Academy of Saint Luke in Rome in 1675.
References: Women Artists: An Illustrated History by Nancy G. Heller, p. 48.

Luisa Ignacia Roldan (1656-1704): Luisa Ignacia Roldan was born in Seville, and is Spain's first woman sculptor where she was known as La Roldana. She was trained in her father's workshop where the entire family including two brothers and a sister were involved in the production of sculpture. Luisa received many commissions which she rendered primarily in terra-cotta or polychromed wood. She married at age fifteen the sculptor Luis Antonio de los Arcos and the couple moved to Madrid where she was appointed Sculptor of the Chamber to the court of King Charles II. Roldan was immensely prolific and her sculptural output included both larger than life sized as well as the uniquely smaller terra-cotta compositions which became her trade mark.
References: Women Artists: An Illustrated History by Nancy G. Heller, pp. 49-51.

Susan Penelope Rosse (1652-1700): Susan Penelope Rosse was a painter of miniatures. Her father Richard Gibson was a miniaturist from whom Penelope received her training. Portrait miniature was popular in England in the seventeenth century, and Susan Penelope Ross became one of the best known artists of this genre. Her works were generally very small--some no large than an inch in length--and included various members of the court of Charles II.
References: Women Artists: An Illustrated History by Nancy G. Heller, p.47-48.

Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750): Rachel Ruysch was born in Amsterdam . Her father was a professsor of anatomy and botany as well as an amateur artist. She studied with the flower painter Wullem van Aelst and achieved a reputation in this genre. She was married to the portrait painter Juriaen Pool and continued to have a long productive career despite having ten children. Both she and her husband appointed court painters to the Elector of Palatine in Dusseldorf from 1708-1713. References: Seeing Ourselves: Women's Self-Portraits by Frances Borzello, p.56; Women, Art and Society by Whitney Chadwick, p. 137; Rachel Ruysch: 1645-1750, by Colonel M.H. Grant; Women Artists: An Illustrated History by Nancy G. Heller, p.41-42.

Elisabetta Sirani (1638-16 65): Elisabetta Sirani was born in Bologna and was primarily a painter of religious and historical themes. Her father Giovanni Andrea Sirani was a painter and Elisabetta demonstrated early in her girlhood that she was gifted not only with artistic talents but those in music and poetry. By the age of seventeen she is reputed to have produced over a190 pieces of art. Sirani died at the age of twenty-seven under mysterious circumstances and a posthumous trial failed to reveal whether there were grounds for the accusation put forth by her father that she ahd been poisoned.
References: Seeing Ourselves: Women's Self-Portraits by Frances Borzello, pp. 52, 54, 56; Women, Art and Society, by Whitney Chadwick, pp. 100-105; Women Artists: An Illustrated History by Nancy G. Heller, pp.32-34.

Anna Waser (1675-c.1713): Anna Waser was born in Zurich in 1675. From an early age she demonstrated her talent as an artist--an early self-portrait executed with considerable technical skill was painted when she was only twelve. Her reputation as a skilled miniaturist enabled her to receive commissions from all over Europe.
References: Seeing Ourselves: Women's Self-Portraits by Frances Borzello, pp. 32.