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Mary Beale, Self-portrait

Mary Beale (1633-1699)

Mary Beale (née Cradock; 26 March 1633 – 1699) was one of the most successful professional female Baroque era portrait painters of the late 17th century due to her perseverance of her business. Praised by Richard Gibson and court painter Peter Lely, she is considered as successful as Joan Carlile. Joan Carlile was also an English portrait painter who was one of the first women to practice painting professionally Mary Beale managed to be the financial provider for her family through her professional portrait business. Her book Observations, although it was never officially published, was one of the first instructional books ever written by a woman and boldly announced her authority on painting. Mary Beale stood apart from other women due to her outspokenness and successful business that allowed her to be the breadwinner of the family.

Early Life

Mary Cradock was born in Suffolk, England in late March. She was baptized on March 26, 1633 by her father John Cradock in the rectory of St Paul's Church in Barrow, Suffolk. Her mother was Dorothy; her maiden name is illegible on her marriage record to John Cradock. Aside from being a rector, John Cradock was also an amateur painter, who then probably taught Mary how to paint. It was common for fathers to teach their daughters how to paint at the time. Growing up in Barrow, Mary lived close to Bury St Edmunds, which is still an important center for the public. A group of painters worked in Bury St Edmunds, including Peter Lely and Matthew Snelling, whom Mary may have met in her youth. On August 23, 1643, John and Dorothy Cradock gave birth to a son named John. Dorothy passed away not too long after the birth of John. During the Civil War, John Cradock appointed Walter Cradock, a distant cousin of his, as guardian of his children John and Mary. Mary and her brother then presumably moved to London, where a lot of their families were living at the time.

Mary Cradock met Charles Beale, a cloth merchant who was also an amateur painter, during a visit to the Heighams of Wickhambrook, who were related to the Yelverton and Beale families. Charles Beale wrote her a passionate love letter and poem on July 25th of an unknown year. Mary Cradock married Charles Beale on March 8, 1651/2 at the age of eighteen. Given that John Cradock was gravely ill at the time of her marriage, he died a few days after Mary's marriage. The couple moved to Walton-on-Thames at some point afterward. Charles Beale was a Civil Service Clerk at the time, but eventually became Mary's studio manager once she became a professional painter. At some point, Charles was working for the Board of Green Cloth where he mixed color pigments. Throughout their marriage, Mary and Charles worked together as equals and as business partners, which was not often seen at the time. On October 18, 1654, Charles and Mary's first son, Bartholomew, was buried. Little else is known about their first son. Their second son was baptized on February 14, 1655/6 and also named Bartholomew. Their third son Charles was born in 1660.

Her husband, the painter Charles Beale the Elder, by Mary Beale

A Professional Businesswoman

Mary Beale was most likely taught how to paint when she was living in London by Robert Walker. The most common way to learn how to paint at the time was to copy great works and masterpieces that were accessible. Mary Beale preferred to paint in oil and water colors. Whenever she did a drawing, she would draw in crayon. Peter Lely, who succeeded Anthony van Dyck as the court painter, took a great interest in Mary's progress as an artist, especially since she would practice painting by imitating some of his work. Mary Beale started working by painting favors for people she knew in exchange for small gifts or favors. Charles Beale kept close record of everything Mary did as an artist. He would take notes on how she painted, what business transactions took place, who came to visit, and what praise she would receive. Charles wrote thirty notebooks worth of observations over the years, calling Mary "my dearest heart". She became a semi-professional portrait painter in the 1650s and 1660s, working from her home, first in Covent Garden and later in Fleet Street.

Writings

In 1663, Mary Beale published Observations. It is a non-published piece of instructional writing that starts by critiquing how to paint apricots. It is astonishing to see a woman from this time write something so authoritative, since the social ideal was for most wives to remain silent. Observations also shows a good partnership and collaboration effort between Mary and Charles. It boldly declared Mary Beale as an artist to remember. Mary Beale also wrote a manuscript called Discourse on Friendship in 1666 and four poems in 1667.

The Business of Painting

The key for a female to become a successful professional painter was to earn a good reputation. It could be easy to misconstrue strangers entering a woman's home for a business transaction as something that would portray the woman in an impure light. Once Mary did start painting for money in the 1670s, she carefully picked who she would paint and used the praise of her circle of friends to build a good reputation as a painter. Some of these people included Queen Henrietta Maria and John Tillotson, a clergyman from St James' Church and a close friend of Mary Beale. John Tillotson eventually became the Archbishop of Canterbury. It may be due to Mary's father, John, who was a rector, or her close connection to Tillotson that kept the clergymen of St James' as consistent customers. Mary's connection to Tillotson as well as her strong Puritan marriage to Charles worked in her favor in building up her good reputation. Mary Beale typically charged five pounds for a painting of a head and ten pounds for half of a body for oil paintings. She made about two hundred pounds a year and gave ten percent of her earnings to charity. This income was enough to support her family, and she did so. Needless to say, it is truly remarkable that Mary Beale was responsible for being the breadwinner of the family.

In 1681, Mary Beale took on two students, Keaty Trioche and Mr. More, who worked with her in the studio. In 1691, Sarah Curtis from Yorkshire became another student of Mary's. Sarah had similar behaviors and dispositions as Mary. Mary Beale died on October 8, 1699. Her death was mistaken for the death of Mary Beadle, whose recorded death is on December 28, 1697. Not much is known about her death besides that she died in a house on Pall Mall and was buried under the communion table of St James' Church. This was rather impressive because most women were buried in church cemeteries. Pall Mall is also a prestigious location.

Her son Bartholomew Beale (1656-1709), by Sir Peter Lely, circa 1670

The Beale Children

Charles and Bartholomew Beale helped with work in the studio in their youth, where they painted draperies and sculpted ovals; these ovals were a critical piece in Mary Beale's head portraits. Young Charles Beale, the third son and named after his father, showed great talent in painting and went to study miniature painting on March 5, 1677. He enjoyed painting miniature sculptures from 1679 to 1688, when his eyesight started to fail him. From then on, he worked on full scale portraits. Bartholomew Beale, the second son, started with painting but instead turned to medicine. In 1680, he studied at Clare Hall, Cambridge and graduated MB in 1682. Bartholomew set up his medical practice on a small property in Coventry, which his father owned.

Praise and Criticism

Mary Beale's paintings are often described as "vigorous" and "masculine". It was common to praise a woman or her work by calling her "masculine". The color is seen as pure, sweet, natural, clear, and fresh, although some critics see her coloring as "heavy and stiff". Due to copying Italian masterpieces as practice, Mary Beale is said to have acquired "an Italian air and style". Not too many could compete with her "color, strength, force, or life". Sir Peter Lely commented on Mary's work with admiration, saying she "worked with a wonderful body of color, and was exceedingly industrious." Others criticize her work as weak in expression and finish with disagreeable colors and poorly rendered hands. It is sometimes described as "scratchy" with a "limited color palette" and too closely imitates the work of Lely. Some of her work can be found on display in the Geffrye Museum in London, England.

See Also

• Joan Carlile
• Peter Lely

References

• Beale, Mary; Walsh, Elizabeth; Jeffree, Richard; Sword, Richard (1975). Citation Title: "The excellent Mrs. Mary Beale" : 13 October-21 December 1975, Geffrye Museum, London, 10 January-21 February 1976, Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne : catalogue / by Elizabeth Walsh and Richard Jeffree ; with introd. by Sir Oliver Millar ; and special contributions by Margaret Toynbee and Richard Sword ; exhibition designed by Richard Sword. London: Inner London Education Authority. p. 72. ISBN 0708500072
• Clayton, Ellen C. (1876). English Female Artists. London: Tinsley Bros. Retrieved May 3, 2016.
• Draper, Helen (Oct 2012). "'"Her Painting of Apricots': The Invisibility of Mary Beale (1633-1699)". Forum for Modern Language Studies 48 (4): 389-405. doi:10.1093/fmls/cqso23. Retrieved May 3, 2016.
• Millar, Oliver. 2000. “Mary Beale. London”. The Burlington Magazine 142 (1162). The Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd.: 48–49. http://www.jstor.org/stable/888781.
• Walsh, Elizabeth. 1948. “Mary Beale”. The Burlington Magazine 90 (544). The Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd.: 209–. http://www.jstor.org/stable/869707.

Bibliography

• Richard Jeffree. "Beale." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. 1-2. Oxford University Press, accessed April 24, 2016, http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T007105pg1. http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T007105pg2.
• "Beale, Mary" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
• Gaze, Delia. Dictionary of women artists, Volume 1 (Routledge, 1997) p224-6.

Further Reading

• Barber, Tabitha. Mary Beale (1632/3-1699): Portrait of a seventeenth-century painter, her family and her studio (Geffrye Museum Trust, 1999)

External Links

• Mary Beale on ArtNet
• English Female Artists
• 'Her Painting of Apricots': The Invisibility of Mary Beale (1633-1699)
• Mary Beale. Burlington Magazine 142
• Mary Beale. Burlington Magazine 90
• "Beale" Page 1
• "Beale" Page 2
• Mary Beale online (ArtCyclopedia)
• Mary Beale Trust (Campaign to save, conserve and repair Mary Beale's Hampshire home, Allbrook Farmhouse and its historic smallholding)
• Paintings by Mary Beale (National Portrait Gallery, London)
• Mary Beale self-portrait (National Portrait Gallery)
• St Edmundsbury Heritage Service (Bury St Edmunds; holds a large public collection)
• Mary Beale exhibition (Geffrye Museum, London)
• Project Continua: Biography of Mary Beale Project Continua is a web-based multimedia resource dedicated to the creation and preservation of women’s intellectual history from the earliest surviving evidence into the 21st Century.