Mary Beale, 'one of Britain’s first professional female artists' Studio International | By Anna McNay
'Have you ever heard of the painter Mary Beale (1633-99)? No? Well, neither had I until I received information on this exhibition comprising 24 of her portrait paintings at Philip Mould & Co. And then, as is always the way, I came across her everywhere, including in books I was reading about female artists and in Tate Britain’s landmark exhibition, Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain (1520-1920), where she is billed as “the best known and most prolific” of the female artists who worked in Britain in the 17th century.1 In fact, she is often credited as Britain’s first professional female artist. It is in this role that Mould wants to show Beale in this academic (non-commercial) exhibition: yes, she was a wife and, yes, she was a mother, but, first and foremost, she was a professional artist and the breadwinner in her family.'
