2/29/2024 0 Comments Mary beale painter![]() Her mother, Dorothy, died when she was only ten, so she was heavily influenced by her father John, who was an amateur painter, and member of the Painter Stainer’s company. Mary was the daughter of John Cradock, a puritan rector from Suffolk. Mary had two extraordinary relationships in her life, the first with her father and the second with her husband. My interest was aroused by Germaine Greer’s other comment about Mary Beale, which was that ‘she wasn't interested in flattering the nabobs and potentates who surrounded the court.' This made me think Mary must have been an independent spirit ahead of her time, and made me curious about this 17th century woman who had broken into the male-dominated world of portraiture. I first became interested in Mary Beale when researching for my book The Lady’s Slipper, which is about a woman artist of the same period. This is how Germaine Greer described Mary Beale, speaking at the dedication of a memorial tablet for her at St James's Church London, where she is interred. She never claimed to be the first woman to make a living by her brush, but she was.” She didn't claim to be extraordinary, but she was. "Unlike other painters of that era, she tried to understand her sitters, rather than glorifying them. Even in the 1600s, women painters showed that they had the goods. She has been noted as being one of the most prominent portrait artists of the time and left a legacy of female painters for centuries. ![]() Her portraits are as flawless as they are expressive and years ahead of their time. Mary Beale painted portraits in the 17th century.
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