Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting online discussion as part of London Art Week focusing on the 17th century portrait artists Mary Beale. Christopher Baker of the Burlington magazine chaired a discussion between two curators who had produced shows on Beale, Lucy West of Dulwich Picture Gallery and Ellie Smith of Philip Mould & Co. Smith focused on the life of Beale and took us through themes in her show which was on at the time at Philip Mould & Co and I have since been to see it.   She talked about how Beale made her money from commissioned work but also painted her family and friends often using them to experiment with new material and ideas. West looked back to show on Beale’s studio from a couple of years ago which focused on her technique and the experiments of her husband, Charles, who was a pigment expert and salesman. She talked about his notebooks which documented the work of the studio. It was fun to hear the speakers discussing Beale’s work which they had obviously grown to lo...

Fascinating small exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery looking at the life and work of Mary Beale and her husband Charles. The show highlighted how Charles, who was Mary’s studio manager, also experimented with colours and paints to help her career as a portrait painter. I loved the labels printed on mock paint palettes with a small blob of colour where the narrative was describing an experiment. At first I was disappointed that there were a number of pictures by other artists, but in each case there was a good link to Mary and they added to the story eg a portrait of her son Bartholomew by Sir Peter Lely who was a neighbour. Closed 3 September 2023