In England, while there was a growing interest in painting, the standard was that of foreign schools, especially the Dutch. Foreign artists found a welcome and generous patronage at the English Court. Mary Beale and Anne Carlisle are spoken of as English artists, and a few English women were miniaturists. Among these was Susannah Penelope Gibson, daughter of Richard Gibson, the Dwarf. While these women were not wanting in artistic taste, they were little more than copyists of the Dutch artists with whom they had associated.
In the early years of the seventeenth century there were a number of Danish women who were painters, engravers, and modellers in wax. The daughter of King Christian IV., Elenora Christina, and her daughter, Helena Christina, were reputable artists. The daughter of Christian V., Sophie Hedwig, made a reputation as a portrait, landscape, and flower painter, which extended beyond her own country; and Anna Crabbe painted a series of portraits of Danish princes, and added to them descriptive verses of her own composition.
The Art of Spain attained its greatest glory in the seventeenth century—the century of Velasquez, Murillo, Ribera, and other less distinguished but excellent artists.
In the last half of this century women artists were prominent in the annals of many Spanish cities. In the South mention is made of these artists, who were of excellent position and aristocratic connection. In Valencia, the daughter of the great portrait painter Alonzo Coello was distinguished in both painting and music. She married Don Francesco de Herrara, Knight of Santiago.
In Cordova the sister of Palomino y Vasco—the artist who has been called the Vasari of Spain on account of his Museo Pictorio—was recognized as a talented artist. In Madrid, Velasquez numbered several noble ladies among his pupils; but no detailed accounts of the works of these artists is available—if any such exist—and their pictures are in private collections.
The above outline of the general conditions of Art in the seventeenth century will suggest the reasons for there being a larger number of women artists in Italy than elsewhere—especially as they were pupils in the studios of the best masters as well as in the schools of the Carracci and other centres of art study.