Professor Catriona Seth
Senior Anniversary Fellow, March - July 2023
Home institution: University of Oxford
My research deals mainly with cultural history and French literature of the eighteenth century. It ranges widely from critical editions of major texts like Laclos’ Les Liaisons dangereuses or Staël’s Corinne ou l’Italie to an intellectual biography of creole poet Evariste Parny or a monograph about early smallpox inoculation. I have also tried to make texts by Enlightenment women more widely available whether these women were celebrated in their time or unknown. I have published widely on Marie Antoinette and been involved in the conception of several exhibitions. Since 2015, I have been the Marshal Foch Professor of French literature and a Fellow of All Souls College (Oxford). Before that I taught in France as a professor at the Université de Lorraine (Nancy) and a lecturer at the Université de Rouen.
Project Title: Recovering Katherine Read: a Scottish Artist and her Networks
2023 marks the tercentenary of a now largely forgotten but once celebrated Scottish artist: Katherine Read (1723-1778). She left Scotland after her uncle was executed as one of the Jacobite martyrs (1746). She studied in Paris and Rome. In 1753 she settled in London and was appointed ‘Paintress to the Queen’. Her sitters range from Princess Carolina Matilda and countless noble British boys and girls (often with their pets), to Inuits Mikak and Tutak, and, after moving to India in 1777, the family of the Nabob of Madras. Things did not work out as she hoped. She left for Europe but never got home, dying onboard ship.
What we know of Read is tantalising but fragmentary. A fiercely independent spirit, a discreet but active supporter of the Jacobites, she managed to have the Hanoverian queen as patron and members of the English establishment as clients. She made her fortune through her art, supporting her wider family. Surviving letters show she was articulate, resourceful and conscious of the limits being a woman placed on a professional artist. Her path to success was unconventional. Pastel, though fragile, was her preferred medium. Her (unsigned) portraits would have been considered less prestigious than those of powerful men.
I am researching Katherine Read’s background, networks and works. By looking into her origins, I hope to find out more about her training and family relationships. These will shed light on her departure for the Continent and connections with the Jacobite diaspora as well as her subsequent trip to India. Her Scottish identity was paramount in Read’s development (many surviving works depict fellow Scots). I will test the hypothesis that her success as an artist owed much to Jacobite networks.
Studying the challenges Read faced but also her successes and extant pictures should fill gaps in current historiography. She is atypical as a woman artist who was not born into an artistic family, who did not become famous as the protégée of a male patron, who travelled extensively on her own and whose income meant she could support her extended relations handsomely. Looking at these aspects will allow me to consider why she is no longer famous and what we might do to address imbalances in the artistic canon.