A revealing new exhibition called ‘Women by Women’ opens on Friday 24 April at Moyse’s Hall Museum, Bury St Edmunds, giving a chance to see valuable 17th century paintings from the large public collection held by St Edmundsbury Borough Council, and to discover how women broke the barriers preventing them from making a living as artists.
Mary Beale (b.1633) became one of the most important portrait painters of 17th century England, and has been described as the first professional female English painter. She was born in Barrow, near Bury St Edmunds, and eventually employed her husband as her assistant. The exhibition includes a well known self portrait.
There are also pictures by Angelica Kaufmann (b.1741), a founding member of the Royal Academy and close friend of Sir Joshua Reynolds, by Rose Mead(b 1867), the daughter of a Bury St Edmunds builder, who exhibited at the Royal Academy and who made a living painting in her studio in Crown Street and Sybil Andrews (b.1898), another female artist who grew up in Bury and retained a strong sense of connection with the rural life of Suffolk.
Cllr Lynsey Alexander, Cabinet member for Culture and Sport said,
“Several past residents have left important bequests to the borough, which is how the Mary Beale works came into public ownership in 1993. I find this exhibition engrossing. We are accustomed today to fleeting, instant images yet the skill of these painters is to arrest us. I can readily recommend an early visit”.
‘Women by Women’ asks, ‘what happens when women are painted by women’? The works explore many of the issues and questions raised by creating portrait images. What do these images tell us about the people who created them, and what do they tell us about ourselves? The exhibition continues until February 2010.
Moyse’s Hall is open between 10am and 5pm (last entry 4pm). Entry is £3 adults, £2 children, £9 family. Group visits can be arranged. Free entry to St Edmundsbury residents.
For further details contact Moyse’s Hall on 01284 706183 or see www.moyseshall.org.
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Issued by: Gill Hawkins, Heritage Officer, St Edmundsbury Borough Council. Phone: 01284 706183 Email: gill.hawkins@stedsbc.gov.uk
