A rare early self-portrait by Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi sold for a record $5.69 million at Christie’s in New York on Wednesday night, marking the highest public auction result for the artist to date and underscoring the soaring market for her work.
The painting, Self-Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria, portrays Gentileschi — widely regarded as one of the most accomplished artists of the 17th century — in the guise of the revered early Christian martyr. The work, believed to have been painted in Florence around 1613–1615 when Gentileschi was still in her early twenties, surpassed its pre-sale estimate of $2.5 million to $3.5 million and more than doubled expectations.
Christie’s confirmed that the buyer was the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., which now adds this poignant self-portrait to its holdings. The acquisition follows a surge of institutional and collector interest in Gentileschi’s work over the past decade, driven in part by renewed scholarly focus on her career and legacy.
New auction record for Gentileschi
The sale eclipses the previous auction record for a Gentileschi painting, Lucretia, sold by Artcurial in Paris in 2019 for €4.8 million (about $5.25 million at the time). However, adjusted for inflation that result would roughly match today’s new high.
Self-Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria is one of only five known self-portraits by Gentileschi, and three are already held in public collections. Scholars date this example to her Florentine period, when she was forging an independent artistic identity amid the challenges of family responsibilities and personal trauma, including her well-documented rape trial in Rome two years earlier.
The record-setting auction coincided with another major acquisition by the National Gallery of Art: Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy, a striking devotional painting by Gentileschi dated circa 1625. According to the museum’s press release, this work is widely considered one of the artist’s most important compositions and represents the Gallery’s first significant acquisition by her.
Unlike the self-portrait, which emerged at auction from the private sphere, Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy had circulated largely outside public view for centuries before resurfacing in 2011 and entering a private collection. The Washington museum did not disclose the purchase price, but institutional records show that the last time this canvas appeared at auction in 2014 it sold for €865,500 (about $1.2 million) including fees.
Gentileschi on the rise
The two acquisitions together signal a significant institutional investment in Gentileschi’s oeuvre at a moment when her profile in the canon of Baroque art continues to rise. Curators have highlighted the emotional power and technical strength of her paintings, which often centre on dramatic narratives and assertive female figures — themes that resonate deeply in today’s art world.
For the National Gallery of Art, adding both a record-setting self-portrait and a pivotal work like Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy expands its representation of early modern Italian painting and broadens public access to masterpieces by one of the 17th century’s most compelling artists.
