Charles Beale

Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 29 October 1986, lot 214;

With Wilkins & Wilkins, London;

From whom acquired by the present collector, 1987.  

Son of the artist Mary Beale, the favorite pupil of Sir Peter Lely, Charles Beale followed in his mother's footsteps and began his artistic training in her studio where he assisted with the painting of draperies and ovals. Set within a feigned stone oval, a hallmark of Mary Beale's oeuvre, the present portrait once bore an inscription at lower left identifying the sitter as "Mrs. Penruddock."