BRINGING A SCOTS ARTIST’S WORK HOME

The McManus Museum in Dundee has acquired one of trailblazing artist Katherine Read’s finest paintings. A contemporary of Gainsborough for a time, Read is believed to have been the first Scottish woman to receive training as an artist. As a woman, she could not undertake the professional training a male artist would expect and she was never able to study life drawing, but was perhaps the most fashionable portrait painter of her day, her success as a professional artist equal to any of her male peers. Born to a well-to-do family in Logie, near Dundee, Read went on to study under artists in Edinburgh, Paris and Rome. Her legacy is acknowledged on the exterior wall of The McManus with a small blue plaque proclaiming the name ‘Katherine Read, Artist, 1723-1778.’ The acquisition of the portrait of Willielma, Lady Glenorchy (above), was made with support from National Fund for Acquisitions and Art Fund. www.mcmanus.co.uk