#Tad carpenter self portrait professional#

#Tad carpenter self portrait professional#

She was one of the most successful professional artists – and women artists – of her era. A late work, this was her last self-portrait and the only one to have been painted in oil it may have been made for the artist’s family, but declares Carpenter’s achievements in its confident scale and handling.Ĭarpenter was an admired, talented and successful professional artist, specialising in portraits she had a thriving independent practice in London from the age of twenty, exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1814 to 1866 and her cultural circle included Richard Parkes Bonington, John Constable and William Collins.

Although Carpenter omitted the tools of her trade, her status as an artist at the height of her career is hinted at in the ornately carved chair and column and balustrade setting, which look back to traditions of British portraits from Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599–1641) to Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792). Most importantly, Carpenter set aside the conventions of idealisation often expected in portraits and painted her hands and face with direct naturalism her eyes especially capture a lively thoughtfulness. The sitter’s appreciation for the natural world is also evident in the fresh snowdrops at her temples which replace the more formal jewellery conventional in such portraits and may indicate the season is early spring. However, the large African Grey parrot perched on her right arm is an unusual companion: known for its intelligence and ability to talk, the bird was probably a pet. She has painted herself seated, dressed in sober black with her hair tidied away in a white bonnet. There are no brushes or palette in the portrait as is often the case with artists’ self-portraits and, at first glance, the artist appears to have represented herself as an ordinary middle-aged and middle-class woman.

This large self-portrait by Margaret Sarah Carpenter is painted in oil on canvas and signed and dated 1852.