Katherine Read

Fielding Collection (according to a label on the reverse);

Private collection, UK.

Katherine Read was a distinguished Scottish portraitist whose refined style placed her among the most respected female artists of the eighteenth century. Born in Dundee to a prominent Jacobite family, her early life was shaped by the political turbulence following the 1745 rebellion. Like several of her relatives, she spent time on the Continent during her youth. By the late 1740s, Read was living in Paris, where she refined her artistic skills and studied the work of the great French pastellist Maurice Quentin de La Tour (1704–1788). She later travelled to Italy, successfully gaining entry into aristocratic circles and cultivating a group of admirers who became her sitters.

By the early 1750s, Read had established herself in London, where she quickly earned a reputation as a gifted portraitist among the aristocracy. She became associated with the royal household, and following her pastel of Queen Charlotte—wife of King George III—she was given the title of 'Paintress to the Queen.' Read was later elected an honorary member of the Society of Artists, where she exhibited regularly between 1761 and 1768.

In the 1770s, she travelled to India in search of new opportunities and to secure a suitable marriage for her niece, Helena Beatson (1762–1839), who was also her only pupil. After Helena’s marriage, and with her own health declining, Read decided to return to England in December 1778, but she died at sea during the voyage home.