Fruit of Friendship:
Portraits by Mary Beale
17.00 (BST) / 12.00 (EDT)
THURSDAY 25 APRIL 2024
Mary Beale (1633-1699) was Britain's first woman artist to run a fully successful studio practice. In an era when the arts in Britain were flourishing and portraitists were in high demand, Beale established a unique portrait practice that set her apart from her competitors and brought her great acclaim.
Friendship and family played a crucial role in Beale's success. She was the figurehead of her family business and studio, while her husband dedicated himself to supporting the business, often preparing his wife's paints and canvasses. Beale's portraits build a picture of a talented artist, writer, collector, businessperson, mother and friend. In this webinar, Christopher Baker (The Burlington Magazine) will head a discussion between Lucy West (Assistant Curator at Dulwich Picture Gallery) and Ellie Smith (Researcher and Exhibition Coordinator at Philip Mould & Company) on the life, career and legacy of Mary Beale.
Fruit of Friendship: Portraits by Mary Beale is on from 25th of April until the 19th of July 2024.
Pre-order the exhibition catalogue from the Philip Mould Gallery website.
Ellie Smith is Researcher and Exhibition Coordinator at the Philip Mould Gallery in London, where she specialises in women artists. She recently published the first biography of the artist Sarah Biffin and curated the exhibition "Without Hands": The Art of Sarah Biffin. She has curated exhibitions and contributed to books and exhibition catalogues on women artists, including "Without Hands": The Art of Sarah Biffin (2022); Charleston: The Bloomsbury Muse (2021); and Pioneers: 500 Years of Women in British Art (2020).
Dr Lucy West is Assistant Curator at Dulwich Picture Gallery in London, where she curated Mary Beale: Experimental Secrets (2023). More broadly, Lucy's research interests at the Gallery include institutional collecting histories, and the role of the art market in the critical fortunes of Old Master paintings - the subject of her AHRC-funded PhD. Lucy has worked in the curatorial departments of the Royal Collection Trust, the National Gallery, the Ferens Art Gallery, Hull and Compton Verney, Warwickshire.
Christopher Baker is the Editor of The Burlington Magazine. He is an Hon. Professor at Edinburgh University and has worked at the National Galleries of Scotland (2003-22), most recently as the Director with responsibility for the collection and programme at the Scottish National Gallery and Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Christopher has also worked at Christ Church, Oxford, and the National Gallery in London and held Visiting Fellowships at the Yale Center for British Art and British School at Rome.
About Fruit of Friendship: Portraits by Mary Beale
The title of the Philip Mould Gallery's upcoming exhibition Fruit of Friendship: Portraits by Mary Beale draws its title from Beale's own writings on friendship and will span her entire career. The exhibition will introduce a number of recently discovered portraits by Beale and showcase several important works that have never been publicly displayed before.
Fruit of Friendship: Portraits by Mary Beale | Philip Mould Gallery | 25 April - 19 July 2024.
Watch the trailer of the exhibition introduced by Philip Mould.
About Mary Beale: Experimental Secrets
Mary Beale: Experimental Secrets took place at Dulwich Picture Gallery in 2023 as part of Unlocking Paintings, an ongoing series of displays which present new perspectives on the Gallery's collection of historic masterpieces. The exhibition explored the technicalities of life in Beale's busy painting room, and revealed Beale's Portrait of a Young Man for the very first time following technical analysis and conservation.
Dulwich Picture Gallery is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10am-5pm | https://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/
Watch Details in the Detail: Mary Beale's Self Portrait 'In Little'.
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