Study of a Head
by BEALE, Mary, Oil on paper laid down on canvas, 35 x 29 cm
The sitter of this portrait study is probably Charles Beale, the artist’s youngest son. Mary Beale had two sons, Charles and Bartholomew. Both boys worked in their mother’s studio, assisting her with the painting of draperies, before Bartholomew gained an MB from Clare College Cambridge, thereafter practicing as a physician at Coventry. The younger son, Charles, studied miniature painting under Thomas Flatman, and later produced portraits in his mother’s style.