Mary Beale

Mary Beale self portrait
commons.wikimedia.org

To get the best from a long planned visit to the William Morris Gallery I needed somewhere to stay overnight.  Quite by chance I booked a night at West Park Lodge which is about 12 miles from the Gallery.  What a treat.  Friendly staff, comfortable room, delicious food and what amounts to a Mary Beale (1633-1699) Gallery.  I had never heard of Mary but she was Britain's first professional woman artist.

Mary was brought up in Suffolk the daughter of a Puritan rector, John Craddock, and his wife Dorothy. Her father was an amateur artist and Mary became used to mixing with the artists who were friends of her father.  Her mother died when she was only 10. 

At 18 Mary married a London cloth merchant named Charles Beale and had three sons.  Her marriage was unusual at the time because it was a love match.  As Mary became more successful Charles became what we might now call a "house husband" and looked after the children, the accounts and generally managed the studio so that Mary could paint.

Part of the Beale family by Mary
www.art-prints-on-demand.com

Mary painted portraits of many famous figures of the day including the Rt Hon Henry Coventry, Secretary of State, who was at the time the owner of West Lodge.  Mary's descendants have owned and run West Lodge Park as a fine country house hotel for three generations and have many paintings (some are copies) on display around the hotel.

Mary was a hard worker and at the height of her career produced 80 portraits a year.  Her basic fee was £5 for a head and shoulders.  For this the sitter would have a portrait in browns and ochres.  If more exotic colours were required the fee would be more.  Hence the wealth of the sitter might be judged by the colours used.

It was an unexpected treat to find out about Mary and even better when I learned that William Morris was commissioned to do some work at West Park Lodge.


The information I have used here is taken from  hotel literature and wikipedia.
http://www.bealeshotels.co.uk/westlodgepark/downloads/WLP_Art%20Booklet.pdf