STEENWIJK, Susanna van

Dutch painter (born Susanna Gaspoel), wife of Hendrick van Steenwijk the Younger. She is known for her paintings of architectural exteriors, one of her best-known being The Lakenhal (Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden), a depiction of the cloth hall (now the Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal) in Leiden. The painting, commissioned from her in 1642, illustrates her simplified, almost naive technique, in which attention is given to such significant details as the sculptured plaques on the building’s exterior that portray the clothmaking process so important to Leiden’s prosperity.

She was active in Leiden in 1642 and 1649 and also in Amsterdam in the late 1640s. She was recorded in Leiden in 1649 as a widow.