6-541: Mary Grace (died 1799/1800) was a British self-taught professional portrait painter and copyist in the 18th century. Mary Hodgkiss' father was a shoemaker, so her skill as a painter is thought to be self-taught, although she may have had some assistance from Stephen Slaughter . She married Thomas Grace in 1744 in London. In 1749 a painting by her of the Reverend Thomas Bradbury was published after it
12-458: The English style of portrait painting. He was the son of Stephen and Judith Slaughter, was baptised in London, and had the artist Judith Lewis as a sister. It has been claimed that John Lewis ( fl. 1737–1769), also an artist, was Slaughter's brother-in-law; but it is disputed whether Lewis was the husband of Judith Slaughter. Slaughter studied under Godfrey Kneller from 1712. In 1720, on
18-677: The Society of Artists' exhibition catalogues. In about 1770 Thomas Grace died leaving property in Hackney , but Mary Grace had other property by 1799 or 1800, as she died at Weymouth Street in Marylebone leaving £1300. In 1785 her own self-portrait was engraved and published. Stephen Slaughter Stephen Slaughter (baptised 1697, died 1765) was an English portrait painter. He spent periods of his career in Dublin , where he introduced
24-705: The account of Joseph Highmore , he was at the London academy of Louis Cheron and John Vanderbank . There followed a long period abroad, in France and Flanders . Returning in 1732–33 to London, Slaughter then set up in Dublin during 1734, paying a longer visit in the 1740s. Slaughter influenced in particular Thomas Frye , as did James Latham . In 1745 Slaughter became Surveyor of the King's Pictures , in succession to Peter Walton. From 1748 he spent time on picture restoration. On 14 July 1765, two months after his death, he
30-496: Was described in a contemporary publication, The Artists' Repository (1770-1780), as "responsible for many portraits 'whose management, as well as likeness, do her great honour'." As well as portraits, she exhibited paintings of historical and classical scenes (e.g. The Death of Sigismunda (1765), Antigonous, Seleucus and Stratonice (1767)), and contemporary scenes such as Beggars (1763) and Pea-Pickers Cooking Their Supper (1764). To date, these are known only from descriptions in
36-555: Was engraved by John Faber . The National Portrait Gallery has copies of this print and another, again after Mary Grace, of Thomas Bradbury, but engraved by Jonathan Spilsbury . Grace exhibited her own compositions at the Society of Artists of Great Britain every year from 1762 to 1769, and also obtained work copying other images. Grace was elected as an honorary member of the Incorporated Society of Artists in 1769. She
#49950