Mayken Verhulst was born in
Mechelen around 1518 as the daughter of Peeter Verhulst Bessemeers (1492–1553) and Margriet Dancerme (1493–1545. Her father was a painter and she learned the artist craft in her father's workshop. Her sister Lysbeth married the engraver and painter
Hubert Goltzius, and her sister Barbara married the painter
Jacob de Punder. She married
Pieter Coecke van Aelst (called the Elder) around 1535 as his second wife. Van Aelst was 16 years older than her and already a prominent painter, sculptor, architect, author and designer of woodcuts, goldsmith's work, stained glass and tapestries. Before they married he had made a perilous journey to
Turkey from which he had brought back a great number of drawings. He became later court painter to
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. They lived together in Antwerp from 1540 to 1545, then moved to Brussels. Verhulst worked in her husband's workshop until his death in 1550. They had three children: Pieter II, Kathelijne and Mayken (who married in 1563 the great painter
Pieter Brueghel the Elder). Mayken was, according to the early biographer
Karel van Mander, the first teacher of her grandsons
Pieter Brueghel the Younger and
Jan Brueghel the Elder. She was buried on 11 April 1600 in Mechelen. This print was originally designed by
van Aelst as a tapestry design, strategically published by Verhulst as a print after his death to showcase his work. No works survive that can be securely attributed to Verhulst, ==Legacy==