Margaret Sarah Carpenter

Anonymous sale, Salisbury, Woolley & Wallis, 15 March 2017, lot 385;

Anonymous sale, Dorchester, Duke's, 28 April 2022, lot 39.

Born Margaret Geddes in Salisbury, the artist was the daughter of an army officer of Scottish descent, who leased a cottage on the Estate of Lord Radnor. Her talents as a self-taught artist, supplemented by lessons from Thomas Guest of Salisbury, attracted the attention of Radnor who allowed her to copy paintings in his collection at Longford Castle.1 She was eventually introduced to Sir Thomas Lawrence during her late teens and established herself as a professional artist in London by 1813. She exhibited no fewer than 243 pictures during her lifetime and is believed to have produced around 1,000 works in total. This remarkable output ranks Carpenter amongst some of the most successful female artists of her generation. She exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy, the Society of Arts, The Society of British Artists, and even alongside Constable and Bonington at the Paris Salon of 1827. When considering her career, the artist William Powell Frith (1819–1909) wrote in his memoir that she 'far surpassed in merit most of her contemporary portrait-painters'.2

1 For the most substantial biography of the artist to date see R.J. Smith, Margaret Sarah Carpenter (1793-1872) A brief biography, Salisbury 1993.

2 W.P. Frith, My autobiography and reminiscences, London 1888, vol. 3, p. 420.