She is mainly known for a series of small-scale female portraits completed between the late 1540s and early 1550s and a few religious compositions.

[2] Van Hemessen is often given the distinction of creating the first self-portrait of an artist (of either gender) depicted seated at an easel.

[6] She was the daughter of Jan Sanders van Hemessen (c. 1500-after 1563), a prominent Mannerist painter in Antwerp who had studied in Italy.

[8] She gained an important patron in the 1540s in the person of Maria of Austria, who served as regent of the Low Countries on behalf of her brother Charles V. In 1554, van Hemessen married Christian de Morien, an organist at the Antwerp Cathedral, which was an important position at that time.

[11] In her lifetime she was mentioned by two Italian artist biographers, Lodovico Guicciardini in his Description of the Low Countries of 1567 and Giorgio Vasari in his Vite of 1568.

[13] Her best-known work is her self-portrait (Kunstmuseum Basel), inscribed in Latin: "I Caterina van Hemessen have painted myself / 1548 / Her age 20".

The sitters, often seated, were usually portrayed against a dark or neutral ground, their gazes rarely meeting the viewer's eyes.