Our course on Female Artists continued on Friday 21 February 2025 with our tutor Jennifer introducing Joan Carlisle (1606-1679), Mary Beale (1633-1699), Susannah Penelope Rosse (1652-1700) and Anna Maria Garthwaite (1690-1763).
Joan Carlisle, we were told is the earliest female English artist in Tate Britain. Her work was much influenced by Van Dyck with similar poses and the same hand gesture for ladies holding their skirts. As well as portraits of the rich and famous, there are also many paintings of hunts taking place in the grounds where she grew up as the daughter of the Park Keeper. In fact her husband later inherited the post from her father. The couple moved to Pall Mall in order to facilitate her painting, and ended up with patronage from the Murray family living at Kenwood. Although very talented, she had not trained as a professional artist.
Mary Beale was one of the most successful female portrait artists, She was married to Charles Beale who had worked in the Patent Office, but he gave up that career to manage the family home so that his wife could concentrate on her career – a decision which benefited them financially. She had been coached if not taught by Sir Peter Lely – a very famous artist of the time – and is known to have copied many of his paintings. Born in Bury St Edmund, the family eventually relocated to Eastleigh near Southampton. As well as maybe 12 paintings of her husband, she seems to have painted many of the leaders of her day, especially in universities.
Susannah Rosse specialised in miniatures. Strangely, her mother and father were both a little under 4ft in height, but all their children were of normal height. We were shown many examples of her work including a miniature of King James II which was just 3cm high.
We closed this section with Anna Maria Garthwaite whose expertise was in the design of silks, often with floral bouquets in bold colours. This opened a door into the world of silk, with designs being made in the Spitalfields area of London, but the cloth being hand woven from yarn in Macclesfield and Congolton. Anna Maria often had to sell her designs through an agent as silk design was principally a male task at that time.
After our break for coffee, we returned to a painting from the National Gallery in London for an examination of the Judgement of Paris in the version by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) which can be viewed here. The cast of characters was explained in detail, including some of the characters hiding in the shadows. Jennifer explained the mythical story behind the painting, and how Paris was manipulated by Eris to chose Aphrodite, and how that led to the Trojan war between Greece and Troy (allegedly!).
Our next session will take place on 02 March 2025 at 10:00am and will feature more female English artists.