A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Beale, (Mary)
This lady was assiduous in copying the works of Sir Peter Lely and Vandyke—whose manner, as well as that of the ancient masters, she was very successful in imitating. She painted in oil, water-colours, and crayons, and was much respected and patronized, particularly by the most eminent among the clergy. The author of an essay towards an English school of painters, says, that "she was little inferior to any of her cotemporaries, either in colouring, strength, force, or life; insomuch, that Sir Peter Lely was greatly taken with her performances, as he would often acknowledge." She worked with a wonderful body of colours, and was exceedingly industrious. Some of her pictures remain at the earl of Ilchester's, at Melbury, in Dorsetshire, and are most frequently distinguished by a stone-coloured frame. Her price was five guineas for a head in oils, and ten for a half-length. It in general brought in more than two hundred a-year; and a deduction of two shillings in the pound was made for charitable purposes. In Dr. S, Woodford's translation of the Psalms, are two or three versions of particular ones by her. She had two sons, who for some time practised painting. There is an engraving of Mrs. Beale, by Chambers, from a portrait done by herself, in Walpole's Anecdotes of painting in England.