Finding Catherine Read
December 23 2025
Picture: Rhodes Trust via ArtUK (where misattributed)
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I hope readers don't mind a short plug for a blog I've written for the website ArtHerStory.net entitled Finding Catherine Read. The piece explains what it is like to go out and find misattributed paintings by female artists. Catherine Read (1720-1778) is widely known as a portraitist in pastel (indeed Neil Jeffares has over 20 pages of them here accessible for free on Pastellists.com), however, her recognised oil paintings are fewer in number.
This summer I began to make a list of misattributed oils on canvas that I have spotted in public collections, museums, private collections and on the art market. The blog features many pictures that are published and given to Read for the first time (perhaps in a long time, at least).
