Catherine Read

Read's portrait of Frances Moore Brooke, circa 1771

Katherine Read (or Catherine) (1723—1778), was a Scottish portrait-painter

Life

Read was born in Scotland, on the 3rd of February, 1723, one of thirteen children of an affluent Forfarshire family.[1] She may have received her education in Edinburgh. Her uncle was John Wedderburn of Blackness, whose daughters were cared for by Read after his execution.[2]

Read was for some years a fashionable artist in London, working in oils, crayons, and miniature. From 1760 she exhibited almost annually with either the Incorporated Society of Artists, the Free Society of Artist, or the Royal Academy, sending chiefly portraits of ladies and children of the aristocracy, which she painted with much grace and refinement.[3]

Read's talent for portraiture was highly regarded in her day,[4] and was the subject of an epistle by Tobias Smollett:

Let candid Justice our attention lead,
to the soft crayon of the graceful Read.

and praised by William Hayley.[2]

Miss Read resided in St. James's Place, London until 1766, when she removed to Jermyn Street. In 1771 she went to India with her niece, Helena Beatson, a clever young artist, who there married, in 1777, (Sir) Charles Oakeley, bart., governor of Madras.[3] She is reported as being in that country in 1775 and 1777, and as dying at sea near Madras.[1]

Her death is recorded as 15 Dec. 1778.[3]

Works

In 1763 she exhibited a portrait of Queen Charlotte with the infant Prince of Wales, and in 1765 one of the latter with his brother, Prince Frederick.

On resuming her practice, Miss Read settled in Welbeck Street. Many of her portraits were well engraved by Valentine Green and James Watson, and a pair of plates, by J. Finlayson, of the celebrated Gunning sisters, the Duchess of Argyll and the Countess of Coventry, remained popular.[5]

Some works by Read have at one time been attributed to Joshua Reynolds.[2] A portrait of Lady Georgiana Spencer has been noted as one of her finest.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Caw, Sir James Lewis (2009). Scottish Painting, Past and Present, 1620-1908. General Books LLC. pp. 49–. ISBN 978-1-150-59407-6. Retrieved 15 November 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 Miss Katherine Read, Court Paintress, A. Francis Steuart, The Scottish Historical Review, Vol. 2, No. 5 (Oct., 1904), pp. 38-46 (abstract)
  3. 1 2 3 O'Donoghue, Freeman Marius (1896). "Read, Catherine". In Lee, Sidney. Dictionary of National Biography. 47. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  4. ↑ Edwards, Edward; Walpole, Horace (1808). Anecdotes of painters who have resided or been born in England;: with critical remarks on their productions;. Leigh and Sotheby. pp. 75–. Retrieved 15 November 2010.
  5. ↑ Thomson Willing,

Further reading

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