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| Keywords: people indoor portrait Mary Beale was the first professional female English artist. She was a prolific painter, mainly in the style of Lely, and through the diaries kept by her husband Charles, a former Clerk to the Patents Office who became her studio assistant and colourman, we know much of her technique and working practice. She began her artistic career as an amateur in the 1650s, but started to paint professionally in the early 1670s, when, after escaping to Hampshire to avoid the plague, her family returned to London. She worked with Lely in his studio, and made small copies of his portraits of famous sitters. Herself the daughter of a puritan rector, she was particularly patronized by the clergy. Mary's family were all involved in the family trade. Charles, her younger son, trained in his mother's studio, and prepared the grounds and draperies of her paintings. A talented draughtsman, he is best known for an exquisite series of intimate red chalk drawings which are now in the British Museum, London and the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. In 1676 he was sent to work with Thomas Flatman 'to learn to limne of him'2, an apprenticeship that cost the Beales £3. This miniature is perhaps Charles Beale's finest, and is done with the subtlety and care one would expect of a son painting his mother. Charles ultimately abandoned miniature painting to work in oils, but was tragically forced to give up his career, because, as Vertue tells us, 'his sight would not bear the practice'. Mary Beale was the first professional female English artist. She was a prolific painter, mainly in the style of Lely, and through the diaries kept by her husband Charles, a former Clerk to the Patents Office who became her studio assistant and colourman, we know much of her technique and working practice. She began her artistic career as an amateur in the 1650s, but started to paint professionally in the early 1670s, when, after escaping to Hampshire to avoid the plague, her family returned to London. She worked with Lely in his studio, and made small copies of his portraits of famous sitters. Herself the daughter of a puritan rector, she was particularly patronized by the clergy. Mary's family were all involved in the family trade. Charles, her younger son, trained in his mother's studio, and prepared the grounds and draperies of her paintings. A talented draughtsman, he is best known for an exquisite series of intimate red chalk drawings which are now in the British Museum, London and the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. In 1676 he was sent to work with Thomas Flatman 'to learn to limne of him'2, an apprenticeship that cost the Beales £3. This miniature is perhaps Charles Beale's finest, and is done with the subtlety and care one would expect of a son painting his mother. Charles ultimately abandoned miniature painting to work in oils, but was tragically forced to give up his career, because, as Vertue tells us, 'his sight would not bear the practice'. | ||||
