Mary Black (artist)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0f/Black_Mary_Artist_by_John_Downman_or_William_Millar_1770s.jpg/220px-Black_Mary_Artist_by_John_Downman_or_William_Millar_1770s.jpg)
Mary Black (c.1737 – 24 November 1814) was an English artist known for her portrait paintings.
Biography
Black was born in London the first of two children born to the artist Thomas Black, (1715–1777), and his wife, Mary.[1] By 1760, she was working as an assistant to the artist Allan Ramsay producing copies and reproductions of works by Old Masters.[1][2] She received a commission to paint portraits of Dr. James Mounsey, a physician in the Russian court, and his cousin Dr. Messenger Mounsey.[1] The latter picture, a three-quarters length portrait, survives and is held by the Royal College of Physicians in London. For many years the painting was attributed to her father.[1] In 1768, Black exhibited four portraits with the Society of Artists and went on to become an honorary member of the society.[3]
As well as painting portraits, Black taught painting to members of a number of fashionable, aristocratic families.[3] Financial success allowed her to live independently while maintaining a household with servants and a carriage. She never married and died suddenly at home in London in 1814.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e Matthew, H. C. G.; Harrison, Brian, eds. (2004). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Vol. 5 (Belle-Blackman). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-861355-5.
- ^ Benezit Dictionary of Artists Volume 2 Bedeschini-Bulow. Editions Grund, Paris. 2006. ISBN 2-7000-3070-2.
- ^ a b Brian Stewart; Mervyn Cutten (1997). The Dictionary of Portrait Painters in Britain up to 1920. Antique Collectors' Club. ISBN 1-85149-173-2.
External links
- 2 artworks by or after Mary Black at the Art UK site
- Articles with short description
- Short description is different from Wikidata
- Use dmy dates from April 2022
- Articles with ISNI identifiers
- Articles with VIAF identifiers
- Articles with BNF identifiers
- Articles with BNFdata identifiers
- Articles with RKDartists identifiers
- Articles with ULAN identifiers
- 1737 births
- 1814 deaths
- 18th-century English painters
- 18th-century English women artists
- 19th-century English painters
- 19th-century English women artists
- English women painters
- Painters from London
- 18th-century women painters
- 19th-century women painters