Anne Sotheby
- Artist: Mary Beale
- Date: 1676–7
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 1269 × 1040 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
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About this artwork
This is “Anne Sotheby” by Mary Beale. Painted in 1676–7, the oil on canvas shows Anne, nee Robinson, the young wife of art collector James Sotheby, seated calmly in a landscape. She wears a gleaming gold silk gown and a blue cloak fastened at the shoulder with a diamond brooch—details that bring the sitter’s dignity into sharp focus.
Beale, one of the few professional women painters of the seventeenth century, drew the pose from a popular type used by the court artist Peter Lely. The composition echoes Lely’s 1675 portrait of Lady Essex Finch, but Beale adds subtle differences: a different tree under Anne’s seat and a distinct vista beyond. The portrait was commissioned by James and recorded in his notebooks as showing her “in her 20th year,” a personal touch that links the artwork to the sitter’s own life.
Behind the canvas, Beale’s studio was a bustling family business. Charles Beale, her son, assisted by “dead‑colouring” and painting drapery, worked alongside his mother on this piece. The work’s acquisition in 2024, funded by the Nicholas Themans Trust, underscores the ongoing interest in early modern portraiture and the vital role of women artists in that era.
See it in person
Anne Sotheby is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
