![]() In her biography of the artist (the first to be written) Penelope Hunting makes clear that, for Beale, this tension was eased by supportive friends and family – and by major commissions. Geffrye Museum of the Home, Londonīeale’s self-portraits demonstrate the conflicting demands of ‘professional’ and ‘woman’ in the 17th century. Self-portrait of Mary Beale with her Husband and Son ( c. A self-portrait of 1672 (reproduced on the book’s cover), replays this theme, but now she holds palette and brush in hand, as though examining the canvas we are looking at. But where the ‘Beauties’ hold flowers, or fruit, or touch the seams of their clothes, Beale’s right hand rests on a painting of her own (of her two sons), and her palette is hanging on the wall behind her. This portrait presents her, once more, as both a woman and as a painter, this time comparing herself both to the most fashionable ladies at court and to the most celebrated portraitist in London: the ringlet that falls down her bare shoulder and the satin fabrics in which she is draped recall the subjects of the Windsor Beauties (1662–65), a set of 11 portraits by Peter Lely, Beale’s friend and mentor. Another self-portrait, from 1666, shows her again holding the viewer’s gaze. The son looks up towards his father, the father across to the mother, but Mary herself looks at the viewer, as if to say: I am a painter as well as a mother. ![]() 1659–60, we see mother, father, and four-year-old son Bartholemew. ![]() Some of the most striking paintings by Mary Beale, generally considered to be Britain’s first professional woman painter, are self-portraits. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |