What to do when you want a family portrait, but one of your parents has gone to (fingers crossed) join the Elect in the sky? Have your artistically-inclined daughter paint a portrait of her father from memory and then commission another, superior male artist to paint the whole gang! Also, those Dutch really enjoyed pointing at obvious things. (http://carmichaelscabinetofcuriosities.blogspot.nl/2011/03/curious-paintings-by-dutch-masters.html) The social status of the painters in the Dutch Republic varied from day laborers through independent masters to well-rewarded court artists such as Michiel van Miereveld and Gerrit van Honthorst, who specialized in portraiture of high officials. In one such portrait, van Honthorst represented yet another type of painter: a well-to-do amateur who painted for pleasure. Several women became accomplished painters in this way. Most master painters were men, but more than a dozen women are recorded as having attained master's status, most famously Judith Leyster (1609-1660). (https://www.wga.hu/html/h/honthors/2/13rooder.html)