Like her male fellow artists, she opened her own studio where she mentored apprentices, and sold her own work. Most female artists of her time specialised in floral still lifes, and although Leyster did paint some works of this kind, she specialised in everyday scenes. Her teacher remains unknown, but she likely spent at least some time working in the studio of Frans Hals. Some of her works are so similar in style to those of Hals that they were even attributed to him in the past. Leyster is regarded as the most famous female Dutch painter of the 17th century.
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