My favourite paintings, no.58
Lavinia Fontana, Portrait of a Pregnant Woman (no date, late C16th).
Lavinia Fontana is generally regarded as the first woman to earn her living as a professional painter. This possible self-portrait therefore may have been a statement about her pregnancy not being an impediment to her ongoing production of paintings. Pregnant self-portraits are also rare & so this may also be the first. A female artist taking command of her own image?!
