Blue plaque to be unveiled to prolific Yorkshire artist

A BLUE plaque will be unveiled to a prolific York-born artist, who was renowned for her watercolours on interiors this week.

York Civic Trust, which has put up more than 100 plaques across the city marking both the people and places of York’s architectural and cultural heritage, will unveil the plaque at Mary Ellen Best’s former home at 14 Clifton on Wednesday.

Best was born into a well-todo but scandal-hit family in 1809, and grew up in Little Blake Street, close to the West End of York Minster, that would later become Duncombe Place.

Her father was Dr Charles Best, who resigned from a post at York Lunatic Asylum after a newspaper expose accused the hospital of mistreating patients and took his family to live in France.

After his death, Mary Ellen, who was known as Ellen, returned to York with her mother and sister where she developed a love of painting - even making brushes out of her own hair, and was painting portraits by age 12.

Unlike her male contemporaries, she did not study at the Royal Academy but in May 1830 won an award for a still life. Later, she travelled to Germany and Holland and married a Frankfurt scholar in 1840. They settled in York at Clifton, later returning to Germany and then Belgium, but kept their York home. She is thought to have created around 1,500 pieces, some of which can be seen at York Art Gallery.