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- Edward Stillingfleet, attributed to Mary Beale, c. 1690
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- Mary Beale self portrait, c. 1665
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- Charles Beale the Elder by Mary Beale, c. 1663
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- Self portrait circa 1675-1680
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- Aphra Behn by Mary Beale
by Koren Whipp
Mary Beale 1632-99 was one of the most important portrait painters of 17th century England and has been described as the first professional female English painter. Beale was also celebrated for her poetical talents; versions of her psalms are included in A Paraphrase upon the Psalms of David (1667) by Dr. Samuel Woodford. Beale was born in Suffolk in 1632, daughter of John Cradock, a Puritan clergyman and amateur painter.[2]
Beale painted in oil, water-color and crayons in the Italian style of which she learned by copying paintings and drawings borrowed from Sir Peter Lely and the royal collections.[3] She became a semi-professional portrait painter in the 1650s and 60s. In 1670, she established a studio in Pall Mall, with her husband, Charles Beale, working as her assistant who mixed her paints and kept her accounts. Beale painted the portraits of eminent clergymen, including John Tillotson and Edward Stillingfleet, charging five pounds for a head and ten pounds for a half-length in oil, which was her most common method of painting.[4] She also painted members of the gentry and of society including Edward Hyde, and Aphra Behn.
[1] Mary Hays, “Mary Beale,” Female Biography; or, Memoirs of illustrious and celebrated women of all ages and countries (6 volumes) (London: R. Phillips, 1803), vol. 1, 250-54, on 253.
[2] Hays, “Mary Beale,” vol. 1, 250-54, on 250; and Laura Auricchio, “Mary Beale,” Mary Hays, Female Biography; or, Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women, of All Ages and Countries (1803). Chawton House Library Series: Women’s Memoirs, ed. Gina Luria Walker, Memoirs of Women Writers Part II (Pickering & Chatto: London, 2013), vol. 5, 346-50, editorial notes, 466-67, on 466.
[3] Hays, “Mary Beale,” vol. 1, 250-54, on 251.
[4] Hays, “Mary Beale,” vol. 1, 250-54, on 251.
Bibliography
Auricchio, Laura. “Mary Beale.” Mary Hays, Female Biography; or, Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women, of All Ages and Countries (1803). Chawton House Library Series: Women’s Memoirs, ed. Gina Luria Walker, Memoirs of Women Writers Part II. Pickering & Chatto: London, 2013, vol. 5, 346-50, editorial notes, 466-67.
Biographia Britannica: or, the lives of the most eminent persons who have flourished in Great Britain and Ireland, from the earliest ages, … collected from the best authorities, … and digested in the manner of Mr. Bayle’s Historical and critical dictionary. The second edition, with corrections, enlargements, and the addition of new lives: by Andrew Kippis,…With the assistance of other gentlemen….
London: printed by W. and A. Strahan; for C. Bathurst, W. Strahan, J. Rivington and Sons, L. Davis, G. Keith [and 12 others in London], 1778-93.
Clayton, Ellen C. English Female Artists. London: Tinsley brothers, 1876.
Gaze, Delia. Dictionary of Women Artists. Volume 1. Routledge, 1997.
Hays, Mary. “Mary Beale.” Female Biography; or, Memoirs of illustrious and celebrated women of all ages and countries (6 volumes). London: R. Phillips, 1803, vol. 1, 250-54.
Walpole, Horace. Anecdotes of Painting in England. Reprint of the edition of 1786. London, Murray, 1871.
Page citation:
Koren Whipp. “Mary Beale.” Project Continua (October 27, 2013): Ver. 1, [date accessed], http://www.projectcontinua.org/mary-beale/
Tags: Age of Discovery, Baroque, Europe, Painters, Poets
