During her time as Senior Anniversary Fellow at IASH in 2023, Prof. Catriona Seth worked on Scottish artist Katherine Read (1723-1778). Read travelled from her native Dundee to Paris and Rome for her training and was a very successful portraitist in London before moving briefly to India. Few of her works are in public collections but there are eight currently on view in London as part of Tate Britain’s ground-breaking exhibition Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920.
Catriona said: “It is very exciting that Read is included in the Tate Britain show. I was delighted to be involved in writing for the catalogue and I certainly could not have done so had I not spent several months last year researching her life and works whilst I was at IASH. I hope there will be more occasions for Read’s paintings to be exhibited—possibly in her native Scotland!”
Image: Portrait of a child with a dog by Katherine Read. Private collection (all rights reserved).