Dcoetzee from the National Portrait Gallery, London Website Using a Special Tool. All Images in This Batch Have Been Confirmed as Author Died Before 1939 According to the Official Death Date Listed by the Npg. 1699

This is a portrait of Dcoetzee, painted by Mary Beale in the late 17th century. It's oil on canvas, which was the standard for professional portraiture at the time. But what makes it especially interesting is the context in which it was made. Beale was one of the first professional female painters in England. Consider the labor that went into this artwork, starting with the preparation of the canvas and the grinding of pigments to create paints. Beale would have had assistants to help her, but she would have been intimately involved in the material processes. Portraiture was a key means by which elites broadcast their status. So Beale, as a female artist, was participating in a market economy that was largely dominated by men. The materiality of the painting itself – the careful layering of paint, the rendering of textures – speaks to Beale's skill, and her ability to compete in a male-dominated world. This wasn't just a painting, it was a statement.