Women and Art in London

In reviewing our collections and the canon of artists that exists within art history, women have historically been side-lined. Here we showcase some of the works that we hold by women who were artists and publishers practising in London during the period 1600s-1800s.

Classifying by gender

We had been reluctant to put the women together in a category, as we wanted to recognise that each artist was an individual rather than classifying by gender. Nevertheless, we sought to highlight the works we have by women as a group, for the simple fact that there are no considerable collections (in number) by each individual, and they need to be pushed into the foreground.

The artists

Here we look at artists and publishers from within our collection with a sample of their work. More examples can be seen in the gallery on the London Picture Archive which we hope to add to over time.

Mary Beale

Mary Beale (1633-1699) produced portraits in oil. A subtle colourist, she was particularly successful in capturing children’s faces. She ran an extremely busy studio in the vicinity of Pall Mall, and in a reversal of the traditional roles employed her husband as her agent and studio assistant. In recent decades Beale has received increasing acclaim as one of the very first female artists in this country to successfully make a living entirely from her art.

In the absence of formal training, denied the study of human anatomy and hampered by the practical problems of working in a male-dominated society, aspiring women artists relied on instruction from their fathers and/or family connections to develop their talent. This was still the case in seventeenth-century England when Mary Beale defied prejudice and established her reputation as portrait painter to the aristocracy, clergy, physicians and fashionable ladies.

Many of the most influential people of the age sat for her with senior churchmen a particular speciality. Thomas Tenison (1636-1715) was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1694 and is associated today particular with the school in Croydon that bears his name. A large man, “hulking” was one description, he held liberal views and preached a sermon at the funeral of Nell Gwynn. It is thought that he was buried at St Mary-at-Lambeth, now the site of The Garden Museum.

The French engraver of the portrait of Thomas Tenison, Archbishop of Canterbury was working from an oil painting by Beale.

Mary Ann Rocque

Mary Ann Rocque (c.1725-1774) took over the cartography business of her husband, the acclaimed mapmaker John Rocque, following his death in 1762. She released maps of North America, surveys of forts, fortifications and roads, and she updated London maps previously issued by her husband and completed his survey of Surrey.

Jane Hogarth

Jane Hogarth (1709-1789), widow of the painter and engraver William Hogarth, took over management of his large backstock of engraving plates. She managed the gallery for his work in Leicester Fields (now Leicester Square) and produced posthumous editions of some of his unpublished works.

This engraving of 'The Politician' was published by Jane Hogarth in 1775, some ten years after her husband's death. It forms part of her project to maintain interest in the work of William Hogarth and to facilitate the availability of his images for sale. She commissioned new prints based on his work, such as this one. Jane also had the most popular of his engraving plates reworked or retouched when the surface wear from extensive printing activity became a problem.

Jane's motivation in publishing new items was also strategic and clearly tied to commercial interests - the copyrights were to expire 1 January 1787, thus the presentation of new works had appeal.

The print satirises the link between politics and news media. The unidentified politician is seated, perhaps in a coffee house, and he is so immersed in his newspaper that he allows the candle he is holding to ignite the brim of his hat.

'Shrimps!' or the shrimp girl engraving was published by Jane Hogarth to make an oil sketch by her late husband that she had in her possession more widely known. The oil sketch is now in The National Gallery.

The painting of the Shrimp Girl, quite exceptional in Hogarth’s oeuvre, is thought to be a real life study of a street seller who would walk through the London streets with her wares, after collecting them at the start of the day at Billingsgate Fish Market. She is a vibrant flesh and blood London girl, such as is rarely seen in mainstream English art in the eighteenth century, but relatively familiar in depictions of ‘street cries’.

This engraving would have been available for purchase from the long-term Hogarth sales gallery and home in Leicester Fields.

Hannah Humphrey

Hannah Humphrey (c. 1745-1818) was a big personality in the relatively small world of Georgian print making and publishing. As a prototype power-gallerist she was responsible for promoting the cartoonist James Gillray and several other high profile and prolific artists.

One such image that Hannah published is seen in, 'High-change in Bond Street, ou, la Politesse du Grande Monde'. This depicts five fashionably dressed men advancing along Old Bond Street, as they push a woman, who is fantastically dressed with a voluminous train and a turban with an enormous feather, off the pavement. In the bottom right of the image is an indication of her involvement in the publishing of the print, almost invisible in her contribution as, 'H. Humphrey'.

Angelica Kaufmann

Angelica Kauffman (1741-1807) was an extremely successful painter of portraits and classical history. Her paintings were celebrated for their warmth of colour and attractive softness, with many published as engravings. She gained recognition throughout Europe and had access to the highest echelons of the art world with many prestigious commissions and membership of the newly formed Royal Academy. Angelica was a close associate of the artist Sir Joshua Reynolds and she lived in London between 1767 and 1781 at 16 Golden Square where she had a studio.

Mary Darly

Mary Darly (1736 - 1779) was accomplished in the fields of music, teaching, writing, engraving, publishing and print selling. She was born in the parish of St Mary Magdalene, Bermondsey and was trained as an etcher. The London Archives' collection has some of her work as a political cartoonist and many others that criticize the pretensions of fashion (in particular the extravagance of the 'macaroni' gentleman). Her works are sometimes intermingled with those of her husband Matthew Darly.

Susan Vivares

Susan Vivares (1734 - 1792) was a member of a successful Huguenot family active in printmaking and with a speciality in landscape prints. Susan’s time seems to have been spent mainly in London where she ran the family print shop in Great Newport Street, Westminster, but also made her own London topographical prints.

Letitia Byrne

Letitia Byrne (1779-1849 ) trained in etching and engraving. She made illustrations of individual buildings, and buildings in landscapes for a number of topographical books, and notably a set of London views based on drawings by John Preston Neale for the widely distributed guide 'The Environs of London'.

Mary Spilsbury

Mary Spilsbury (1776-1820) was a painter of portraits and an exhibitor at the Royal Academy and the producer of charming genre subjects. She lived more or less facing Hyde Park which is captured in the print 'The Drinking Well'. It shows an interesting group including children, a servant, a uniformed black page-boy and a pet dog.

Jane Smith

Very little is known about Jane Smith, but it seems likely she was daughter of the eminent London writer and topographical artist John Thomas Smith. Their drawing styles are closely similar, and they share an unusual and sympathetic level of interest in the people that populate the spaces that they draw. In 1822 she made the drawings and engravings for an illustrated guide called ‘Picturesque Scenery around London’. Just as with the work of J T Smith this book constantly relates modern London to its historical past.

Mary Ann Hedger

We have managed to find hardly any biographical information about this artist who was working in early nineteenth-century London. In our collection we hold her ink drawings, watercolours and sketch plans around a particular site that relate to City subjects during the period c.1800 to 1830.

Some are quite formal and linear elevations of buildings, whilst some are more artistic renderings of streets or of buildings and enlivened by people going about their business.

There is a definite antiquarian impulse at work in her use of earlier images. Seemingly, she found them in books or scrapbooks, and in one case, existing only in a volume of original drawings which is now in the British Museum. Firstly, it appears that she was interested in recording for future generations, the appearance of buildings that had been lost during London’s expansion. Secondly, that she took active part in the social circles where those with similar interests met and shared research. It would be fair to say that these circles were overwhelming male at the time (and for decades later) making Mary Ann Hedger quite the exception.

How to research women artists

If you'd like to explore this subject further and find more women artists and publishers along the way, then you can start by using resources held at The London Archives. Some of the things you might use include:

• Trade Directories
• Trade Cards
• Street Directories

Start your research journey by registering for a History Card and staff at the Information Area desk will be able to point you towards our collections.

Further reading

'Female Printmakers, Printsellers and Publishers in the Eighteenth Century: The Imprint of Women', ed. C. Martinez and C. Roman. (In the British Museum Library).