Mayken Verhulst

Mayken Verhulst (1518–1596 or 1599), also known as Marie Bessemers,[1] was a sixteenth-century miniature, tempera and watercolor painter and print publisher.

She was actively engaged in the workshop of her husband, Pieter Coecke van Aelst, posthumously publishing his works.

Van Aelst was 16 years older than her and already a prominent painter, sculptor, architect, author and designer of woodcuts, goldsmith's work, stained glass and tapestries.

[5] Following Pieter Coecke's death in 1550, she likely oversaw the publication of a large scroll made by conjoining multiple woodcuts entitled Ces Moeurs et Fachons de Faire des Turcz (Manners and Customs of the Turks) (1553) (copies of which are in the collections of the Rijksmuseum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British Museum.

[8] While little is definitively known about her life and works, Guicciardini's Descrittione places her alongside Susanna Horenbout, Levina Teerlinc, and Caterina van Hemessen, suggesting her remarkable talents.