{{Short description|Dutch artist (c. 1583–1651)}} '''Anna Roemers Visscher''' (c. 2 February 1583 – 6 December 1651)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://rkd.nl/nl/explore/artists/227341|title=Ontdek dichter, schilder, glasschilder Anna Roemersdr. Visscher|website=rkd.nl|language=nl|access-date=2020-03-15}}</ref> was a Dutch artist, poet, and translator. thumb|left|{{center|Drawing with imaginary title Anna Roemers Visscher}} thumb|Anna Roemers Visscher: ''Rummer with an engraved poem on Constantijn Huygens'', 1619, Rijksmuseum BK-1983-15 [[File:Engraved berkemeyer - Vincens tu - Anna Roemers Visscher - Rijksmuseum - BK-NM-8186.jpg|thumb|{{center|Berkemeyer tumbler engraved by Visscher in 1646}}]]

==Biography== Anna Roemers Visscher was the eldest daughter of Amsterdam merchant and poet Roemer Visscher and the sister of Maria Tesselschade Visscher. Her family's economic and social status in Amsterdam enabled Visscher to be schooled in languages, calligraphy, embroidery, drawing, painting, glass engraving and other arts.

Visscher married Dominicus Booth van Wesel in 1624. In 1646, they moved with their two sons Roemer and Johan to Leiden.<ref name="Age of Rem">{{cite book |title=The Age of Rembrandt|last=Fleischer |first=Roland E. |author2=Susan Scott Munshower |author3=Susan C. Scott |year=1988 |publisher=Penn State Press |isbn=978-0-915773-02-2 |pages=55 }}</ref>

Visscher lived during the Renaissance when women poets were often praised for who they were more than for their literary work. She was amongst the group of artists, writers and musicians who formed the Muiderkring or Muiden Circle. She was highly admired by the artistic elite such as P. C. Hooft, Jacob Cats, Joost van den Vondel, Constantijn Huygens and others. They called her a muse, the second Sappho, a fourth grace and more, and often dedicated works to her.<ref name="Muse">{{cite book |title=The Defiant Muse |last=Meijer |first=Maaike |author2=Ankie Peypers |author3=Yopie Prins |year=1998 |publisher=Feminist Press |url=https://archive.org/details/dutchflemishfemi0000unse/page/5 |isbn=978-1-55861-152-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/dutchflemishfemi0000unse/page/5 5] }}</ref> Jacob Cats, for example, dedicated ''Maagdeplicht'' (''The Duties of a Maiden'') to Visscher.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age|last=Schama|first=Simon|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley|year=1987|page=419}}</ref> The Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens dedicated an engraving of his ''Susanna and the Elders'', executed by Michel Lasne (ca. 1617–18) under Rubens's supervision, to Anna Visscher; the inscription praises her virtue.<ref name=JKMvSK>{{cite journal|journal=Jaarboek van het Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten|last=Op de Beeck|first=E.|title=Suzanna en de twee ouderlingen, Rubens gravures voor Anna Roemer Visscher|year=1973|pages=207–221}}</ref> A second engraving, executed by Lucas Vorsterman (1620) after another of Rubens's ''Susanna and the Elders'', carries the same dedication from Rubens to Visscher.<ref name=JKMvSK/><ref>{{cite journal|journal=Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek|last=Hottle|first=Andrew D.|title=Commerce and Connections: Peter Paul Rubens and the Dedicated Print|volume=55|year=2004|pages=54–85|doi=10.1163/22145966-90000105}}</ref>

Visscher is particularly regarded for her diamond-point glass engraving. Additionally, she had an apparent interest in emblem books, as she translated into Dutch thirteen epigrams from Georgette de Montenay's ''Emblèmes, ou devises chrestiennes'' of 1584 [https://web.archive.org/web/20060516085114/http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/manuscripts/search/resultsn.cfm?NID=15755&RID= Manuscripts Catalogue]. She also contributed poetry to the 1618 emblem book, ''Silenus Alcibiadis, Sive Proteus'' [https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/laan005lett01/laan005lett01_2056.htm K. ter Laan, Letterkundig woordenboek voor Noord en Zuid · dbnl] by Jacob Cats. She was a contemporary and friend of Anna Maria van Schurman.<ref name="Muse"/>

Visscher died in Alkmaar, at the home of her sister Maria.<ref name="Age of Rem"/>

==References== {{reflist}}

==Further reading== *Lennep, J, Herman F. C. Kate, and W P. Hoevenaar. [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZQ9jAAAAcAAJ&dq=Galerij%20van%20beroemde%20nederlanders%20uit%20het%20tijdvak%20van%20Frederik%20Hendrik&pg=PA30-IA102 Galerij Van Beroemde Nederlanders Uit Het Tijdvak Van Frederik Hendrik]. Utrecht: L.E. Bosch en Zoon, 1868.

==External links== {{Commons category|Anna Visscher}} {{ACArt}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Visscher, Anna}} Category:1583 births Category:1651 deaths Category:16th-century Dutch people Category:16th-century Dutch women artists Category:16th-century Dutch artists Category:17th-century Dutch poets Category:17th-century Dutch women writers Category:Dutch women poets Category:Muiderkring Category:Translators from French Category:Writers from Amsterdam Category:Glass engravers Category:Dutch women engravers Category:17th-century Dutch engravers Category:17th-century Dutch women artists Category:17th-century translators Category:Dutch glass artists Category:Women glass artists Category:16th-century Dutch women writers Category:16th-century Dutch writers