PIONEERS OF PORTRAITURE: Propriety and Prosperity in Mary Beale’s Portrait Practice with Lisa Mansfield

Mary Beale’s commercial success as one of the most accomplished portrait painters working in 17th century Britain, attests her powers of observation, social graces, and uncommonly equal partnership with her husband in marriage and business. 

In examining her innovative approach to the representation of gender, this lecture will explore her conscious self-promotion as a woman artist within an illustrious lineage of female pioneers of portraiture extending back to the Renaissance.

LISA MANSFIELD is an art historian originally from Melbourne. Her doctoral dissertation examined the portraits of the French Renaissance King, Francis I (reign 1515-1547), which formed the basis for her book, Representations of Renaissance Monarchy: Francis I and the image-makers, 2016.

Lisa's core area of research investigates the political and psychological mechanics and communicative power of the face and body, particularly in Northern Renaissance traditions of portraiture. Additional research interests that inform Lisa's teaching practice include the construction of image and identity in virtual worlds (avatar creation in Second Life), and art censorship and iconoclasm in past and present historical contexts. 

Lisa completed her Ph.D. Art History at the University of Melbourne in 2005, where she was a tutor and guest lecturer from 1998 to 2005. In mid-2008 Lisa joined the Department of Art History, University of Adelaide, and teaches a range of courses in European art history. She recently presented a paper on Francis I, at the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage in Brussels, and has lectured and published widely.

image: Mary Beale, (English, 1632/3-1699),

Self-Portrait of Mary Beale with Her Husband and Son, circa 1660

, oil on canvas, 602 x 740 mm, collection of The Geffrye, Museum of the Home, London, 49/1978, purchased with the assistance of the Victoria & Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund and the Art Fund, 1978, image used with permission under Public Domain