The Experimental Secrets of Mary Beale
Assistant Curator Lucy West introduces the latest display in Gallery 12, Mary Beale: Experimental Secrets. It’s no secret that Mary Beale (1633-1699) is treasured in Dulwich Picture Gallery’s collection as the only historic female painter within its holdings. Yet, much less well known is that Beale was a highly experimental and technically pioneering painter, assisted by her husband and devoted studio manager, Charles Beale (1632-1705). Lucy’s lecture traces the ‘experimental secrets’ of Mary’s esteemed portraiture business, shedding light on an art world in seventeenth-century London where, as well as sharing secrets, artists began to withhold them too.
Watch Details in the Detail: Mary Beale's self portrait 'In Little'
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Image credit: Mary Beale, Self Portrait, Holding an Artist's Palette, c.1675, Bequeathed by Richard Jeffree through Art Fund, 1993. On loan from Moyse’s Hall Museum, West Suffolk Council Heritage Service.
