A Posthumous Journey to the Top
By Madina Burkhanova
“You’ll see, I’ll top it with the best of them.”
A rare quote from the Scottish portrait artist Katherine Read taken from a letter to her brother, exuding confidence - and rightfully so. At a glance, Read’s story is glaringly reminiscent of so many other women: exceptionally talented, unwaveringly determined, and tragically overlooked.
Born in 1723 to an affluent family of thirteen children in Dundee, Read is a figure almost completely lost in history. Her legacy remains only in commissioned paintings and the odd gallery piece, and yet it is undeniable that her technical skill and deftness with the human visage should have rendered her a paragon of portraiture.
Katherine Read, Miss Trimmer, 1750-1775, pastel.
Katherine Read, Catherine Macaulay, 1764, pastel.
From the little that is known about Read’s life before adulthood, her unmoving resolve was undeniable from her earliest years. While she eventually made her way to Paris in her early twenties, her life was shockingly devoid of art until then. 18th-century diarist Elizabeth Mure once wrote of the bleakness that came from the restrictions imposed on Scottish girls in the eighteenth century, describing how trips to Edinburgh to “dance and to see a little of the world” were the extent of their exposure to the arts.
As with many artists, political ideology was a catalyzing element of Read’s life. Her uncle Sir John Wedderburn had been an avid supporter of Jacobitism, the ideology that supported the restoration of the exiled House of Stuart to the British throne. With the politically-induced execution of her uncle came the exile of her own family, and so Read arrived in the more permissive environment of the French capital.
Under the tutelage of the Rococo artist Maurice Quentin de la Tour - notably, the first French artist to take on a female student - Read developed her skills of portraiture and established a name for herself in various wealthy circles. She worked almost exclusively in crayons and pastel, which contributed to the undermining she faced from peers (pastels were considered a feminine, even juvenile, medium). Despite the progressiveness of Paris in comparison to Scotland, Read continued to fall victim to the social and artistic constraints that being a woman imposed on her; never having been allowed any formal training, she was also denied the opportunity to study anatomy or attend life drawing classes.
Katherine Read, King George IV: Frederick, Duke of York Albany, 1765-1770, pastel.
Like a force of nature, Katherine Read reached a point where she was an artistic fixture for the rich. Even when living in Rome, and later, London, Read instituted her painting skills and commissioned pieces for some of the most well-to-do families. This isn’t to say that she didn’t experience setbacks - those were in abundance for her, as even her accuracy in portraiture wasn’t enough to contest the diminished stature of female artists in the eighteenth century. These hindrances to her artistic development are apparent in her work too. Many of her subjects are posed with their heads tilted and looking slightly away, and sometimes with a hand placed on the side of their face. This consistency can be attributed to the absence of any official artistic training, as it’s very possible that Read chose to stick to what was familiar to her.
Katherine Read, Polly Kennedy, after 1767, pastel.
Katherine Read, Juliana Baker, 1750-1775, pastel.
As outrageous and belittling as Read’s omission from history is, what is arguably worse is that many of her pieces have been attributed to male artists through the years. In other words, a career already pre-determined to be eclipsed has been even further obscured. But how, and why, has her artistic journey been brought to life?
The McManus in Dundee was recently able to acquire one of Read’s finest works, a portrait of Lady Glenorchy (another trailblazing Scottish woman of the eighteenth century). The presence of a Read piece in a museum is decidedly rare, with much of her work being commissions kept within families. The publicity surrounding the piece in the McManus has opened a Pandora’s box of perspectives and facts on Read’s life that have made but a start to the recognition that she deserves.
Photograph of Anna Robertson, fine applied art manager of the McManus with Read’s portrait of Lady Glenorchy. Courtesy of The Courier.
Read’s death, much like her artistic legacy, is veiled. Upon her return from India, having gone to revive a dying career, she was unfortunately buried at sea. Her work finally being displayed in galleries is a step towards recovering the acknowledgement she assuredly deserves as a portrait artist and prolific Scottish female figure. It’s difficult, if not impossible, for the legacy of any artist to transcend time; however, does that mean that we shouldn't try?
Bibliography:
Campsie, Alison. Forgotten World of Pioneering Female Artist Unlocked by Portrait. The Scotsman, 2021.
Jeffares, Neil. Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800. University of Michigan: Unicorn Press, 2006.
Morrill, John S. Jacobite. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2018.
National Portrait Gallery. Katharine Read. London.
Vidinova, Nadia. Katherine Read: The Forgotten Dundee Artist. The Courier, 2021.