Mary Beale

Daughter of a Suffolk clergyman, she married Charles Beale, an artist's colour-man, in 1652. A painter working professionally from the mid-1650s, Mary Beale produced numerous portraits, particularly of her family and friends, who included a number of prominent churchmen. She was a friend of Sir Peter Lely. Many details of her busy working life are recorded in the notebooks kept by her husband who acted as her studio assistant.

Text © National Portrait Gallery, London