Mary Beale

• The first professional female English portraitist of the Baroque era was Mary Beale (born in Barrow, Suffolk, 26^th March 1633 – died in London 1699) who produced numerous portraits of her family, important clergymen, as well as self-portraits, using a variety of media - oils, pastels and watercolours. Now, I must say that being introduced to her biography, I became more impressed with her husband, even though she was a true pioneer of her time in many ways.

• She was introduced to the art world by her father, a Puritan clergyman called John Cradock, who was also an amateur painter (and member of the Painter-Stainers' Company), just like her husband, a cloth merchant from London called Charles Beale. Through her father's connections, Mary got acquainted with an English politicians portrait painter, Robert Walker, from whom she received training, and started working as a professional painter in the 1650s.

• After the period of financial crisis and the Great Plague, which the family spent in Allbrook, Hampshire, she established a studio in Pall Mall in London where her husband worked as her studio assistant and accountant. Mary became a successful and recognised artist, witnessed by the circle of her friends with pr ominent reputation, such as: the poet Samuel Woodford, the Archbishop of Canterbury John Tillotson and Bishops Edward Stillingfleet and Gilbert Burnet, as well as the Court Artist to Charles II, Peter Lely, whose art she was profoundly influenced by.

Mary Beale, Portrait of Mary Moll Davis, (1675)

• She was the mother of three sons (her first-born, Bartholomew, died) who were also artistically gifted, but only her third child, Charles, became a professional artist, specialising mainly in miniatures. Her second child, Bar tholomew, practised painting before committing himself to medicine. Mary was also trying to pass her artistic knowledge on to others, and one of her students, Sarah Cuties, became a well-known painter.

• In her Self-portrait from about 1685, Mary boldly presents herself as a working woman (with a palette hung in the background) and as a mother (holding the painting with her two portrayed sons), clearly aware of her significance and self-importance for both the period and social circumstances in which she lived.

Mary Beale, Self-portrait (c. 1685)

• Beside preparing canvases and mixing paint, her husband kept the records of her busy working life, often addressing her as the “Dearest Heart”. Charles' notebooks are a precious source, proof of her well-established “business” (as well as the art climate of London of the 17^th century), for she wasn't too interested in innovations of hers and art in general, being more mentally aware that she was known as a copyist and was in great demand at the time.

• The number of commissions decreased, especially after the death of Lely, and Mary turned to painting intimate studies and portraits of her family members. These quite reasonably differ to the more official portraits of her clientèle, and therefore, more importantly in my opinion; are more subjective, displaying the span of her intimate emotions through the paintbrush, as all true art should aim to.

Upper: Mary Beale, Portrait of Charles Beale, (c.1675)
Mary Beale, Portrait of the Artist's Son Bartholomew Beale, (c.1665)