Picture Archive & Historical Portraits
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Artists
  • Artworks
  • Image Licensing
  • Philip Mould Gallery
  • Contact
Menu
Mary Beale

Mary Beale

mary beale portrait of her husband charles beale

Mary Beale

Portrait of Charles Beale (1632-1705), c. 1675
Oil on canvas
21 x 18 in. (53.5 x 45.5 cm)
Philip Mould & Co.
License Image
%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22artist%22%3EMary%20Beale%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22title_and_year%22%3E%3Cspan%20class%3D%22title_and_year_title%22%3EPortrait%20of%20Charles%20Beale%20%281632-1705%29%3C/span%3E%2C%20%3Cspan%20class%3D%22title_and_year_year%22%3Ec.%201675%3C/span%3E%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22medium%22%3EOil%20on%20canvas%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22dimensions%22%3E21%20x%2018%20in.%20%2853.5%20x%2045.5%20cm%29%3C/div%3E
To view all current artworks for sale visit philipmould.com In this honest head and shoulders portrait, Mary Beale depicts her husband, the artist and dilettante Charles Beale with an intimate...
Read more

To view all current artworks for sale visit philipmould.com


In this honest head and shoulders portrait, Mary Beale depicts her husband, the artist and dilettante Charles Beale with an intimate informality.

Similar in style to a larger half-length created during the mid-1670's, Charles Beale is shown in a relaxed pose, draped in a brown gown and wearing an open-necked chemise. The artist's ability to create a compelling likeness rich in character is further demonstrated by the accented detail applied to the feature of the sitter, his wart. In an age when fashion dictated that a portrait should present a strongly posed, courtly image, Mary Beale's likeness of her husband is strikingly unique in its casual familiarity.

Influenced by both Lely and Robert Walker, Mary Beale's treatment of her commissioned sitter is recognisably seventeenth century. In the majority of her portraiture her use of drapery and Arcadian imagery (Lady Mary Watson as a Shepherdess, c.1685, Lady Sadleir, c. 1686-7) departs little from the standardised portrayals of the day. However, the uniqueness of Beale's style and perspective lies in those uncommissioned works which she undertook for study and improvement, such as this portrait of her husband. As a woman, Beale, irrespective of her unusual role as a professional portraitist and family breadwinner, continued to maintain her traditional, domestic role at the centre of the home. Perhaps reflective of the Beales' lifestyle, their household remained an unconventional one for the time. The artist's husband, Charles not only acted as her muse but her housekeeper and accounts manger. By modern standards the Beale home might have been labelled as Bohemian, particularly as it played host to a variety of thinkers and artists such as Thomas Flatman, Samuel Woodforde, John Tillotson, and later two young women artists, Keaty Trioche and Sarah Hoadley (nee Curtis). The informality of the home and the intimacy Mary Beale shared with the sitters who formed her household translates noticeably onto her canvases. Her renderings of her husband and sons as well as her assistants, candid in expression and pose are approached from an angle not otherwise seen in seventeenth century English portraiture.

Close full details
Share
  • Facebook
  • X
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Email
Previous
|
Next
18 
of  43
PHILIP MOULD & COMPANY
CONTACT

+44 (0)20 7499 6818
art@philipmould.com

18-19 Pall Mall
London SW1Y 5LU

philipmould.com

FOLLOW US

Instagram

Facebook

TikTok

YouTube

Artsy

 

Join the mailing list
Manage cookies
Copyright © 2025 Picture Archive & Historical Portraits
Site by Artlogic

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences
Close

Be the first to hear about our available artworks

Interests *

Sign Up

* denotes required fields

We will process the personal data you have supplied in accordance with our privacy policy (available on request). You can unsubscribe or change your preferences at any time by clicking the link in our emails.