Together they sought to improve the studio's efficiency, through perfecting procedures that would produce good results at a lower cost. ![]() It was this aspect of the painting studio that Charles oversaw, a business which was a collaborative partnership between husband and wife. This, as well as his notebooks of 1677 (Bodleian Library, Oxford) and 1681, are full of notes relating to his trials in manufacturing expensive pigments, his experiments in priming canvases and his efforts to perfect procedures such as the quick-drying of paint layers. Charles Beale's interest in the technical aspect of painting is known to date back to at least 1647, when he began a journal entitled Experimental Secrets found out in the way of Painting (Glasgow University Library). It becomes clear that Mary Beale's purpose in carrying out the studies, as well as to develop her skill, was to test out, in conjunction with her husband, various painting methods. For the latter, he identifies the sitters and, in most cases, their poses and tracks the progress of each work from one sitting to the next, paying particular attention if a novel technique had been used. In the notebook, really an annotated almanac, Charles Beale (1631-1705) lists his wife's activities for each day, detailing her commissioned portraits as well as the experimental studies. ![]() ![]() This portrait study is very possibly an example of such a work. In 1681, a year in which a great deal is known about Mary Beale due to the survival of her husband's notebook (Heinz Archive, National Portrait Gallery), it is recorded that she undertook several paintings for the purpose of 'study & improvement'.
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