Self-portrait by Judith Leyster is a Dutch Golden Age painting in oils now in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.

Many of the elements in the painting are foreshortened in order to feel closer and like they are coming into the viewer's space.

[6] Because she did not sign many paintings with her maiden name, art historians would misattribute those to Frans Hals or other male Dutch painters during that time.

Her Self-Portrait was supposed to be executed in the 1620s by Hals and may have been among those sold as "Daughter of the artist" in early sales catalogs.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, collectors and dealers often forged Frans Hals's signature on her paintings and covered up hers.

[citation needed] The painting was sold by the Ehrich Galleries of New York on 9 May 1929 to Mr. and Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss, of Washington, D.C for 250,000 dollars.

Continuing in the tradition of sixteenth-century artists who pushed to have painting seen as a profession as opposed to a craft, Leyster chose to depict herself wearing lace cuffs, rich fabric and a huge collar, which would not have been suitable for painting, but instead draw attention to her wealth and success.

[5] While it is unclear whether Leyster studied under Hals, the loose brush strokes and casual pose echo his stylistic choices.

[5] Leyster shows herself working on a figure who appears in another surviving painting of hers, The Merry Trio.

Similar to other paintings of hers, Leyster's self-portrait has a momentary quality to it—she is turned partially to the viewer with her lips parted as if to speak.

[5] Leyster also paints herself with her arm propped up resting on the chair that mimics the casual and free confidence she had in her skill.

This, along with the fistful of brushes and inclusion of the fiddler from her later painting The Merry Trio, suggest that this piece was calculated to advertise her abilities.