The Flemish artist Levina Teerlinc (1510–1576) arrived in London around 1545. She was commissioned by Tudor monarchs, and was a favoured artist of Elizabeth I, which helped to popularise the portrait miniature.
Her father, Simon Bening, an illustrator and illuminator in Ghent may well have taught her the craft of watercolour on animal skin; limning is traditionally passed from master to pupil. Teerlinc was the likely tutor of limning to one of England’s most prominent portrait miniaturists, Nicholas Hilliard.
Teerlinc is named in Giorgio Vasari’s seminal account of painters as an excellent female miniaturist. However, a lack of historical documentation means has led Teerlinc to be overlooked in favour of such male artists as Holbein and Hilliard.
Reference: https://doi.org/10.22024/UniKent/01.02.74365