#AntiqueMasterpieces"Maria Verelst was one of the most talented female immigrant artists of the late Stuart/early Georgian era and the present work is an important addition to her much neglected oeuvre. The present work is a recently discovered version of the painting of Anne Blackett by Verelst at Wallington Hall, Northumberland. This portrait displays Verelst’s masterful combination of elegant grandeur and refined form. As well as a talented painter, Maria was also well educated and spoke a number of different languages which no doubt helped her secure patronage. According to an anecdote published in 1730 Maria was once at Drury Lane theatre when she heard some gentlemen nearby praising her in German, and retorted, in perfect high German, that she would not be belittled in such a manner. Shocked, the men continued their conversation in Italian, to which Verelst gave the same reply. The men continued their conversation once more in Latin, to which Verelst responded, in Latin; ‘Do you think you have more right to speak Latin than women, isn’t it enough that our female sex is already kept outside of public dignities without being excluded from language as well?’ Her astute demeanour overpowered the group of men, whom she subsequently painted a portrait of each, and benefited from the men's connections to shape a wealthy and cultured clientele."
Something that's always greatly interested me is female painters. I'm, together with the rest
of the gallery, very familiar with so many works by the wonderful Mary Beale in the 17th century.
We've handled paintings in the later 18th century period by Angelica Kaufmann. But there is another
female artist who bridges the century. Her name is Maria Varelst, and she is the artist of this
painting here, of a lady called Anne Blackett. Now, Maria was one of a dynasty of Dutch painters
who settled in England, and she herself was a very accomplished woman in all sorts of ways.
Not only could she paint fantastically, as we can see with this woman reclining so easily in a
landscape, her voluminous dress filling at least 25% of the picture, but the artist herself, her
intellect and sophistication were also a very significant tool in her being able to hold her
own in a male-dominated world. There's a lovely anecdote of her overhearing a group of men
discussing her. They were talking in German, but she understood it and was able to confront them.
They then moved into Italian. She could do the same. And finally, when they moved into Latin,
she'd had enough and said, isn't it enough that our female sex is already kept outside of public
dignitaries without being excluded from language as well? What is, I think, particularly striking
about this painting is its shape. You know, we use the term landscape-shaped and portrait-shaped.
Well, this is a portrait in a landscape, and every inch that, I mean, if you look at the background
and the house and the greenery and that lovely sort of greeny-silvery way in which the trees
and branches are done, it's a superb fusion of her wonderful dress and the background. It becomes
a lyrical extension of her. She's an artist I'm sure we will be hearing a lot more of in the
future. I came across her, and it's always interesting to know how one first comes across
artists, in no better place than Blenheim Palace. She'd managed to get a commission
from the Duchess of Marlborough, but she's done a grand job with this as well.
