Anne Mee, née Foldsone (1765–1851) was a prolific English miniature painter of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Life

The eldest child of John Foldsone, she was educated at Madame Pomier's school in Queen Square,

Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions. Bloomsbury is home of the British Museum, the largest mus ...

, London. She began to paint at age 12, with tuition from George Romney, and after her father died in 1784, did so to support her family. Anne Mee exhibited occasionally at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

between 1815 and 1837. She died at Hammersmith, 28 May 1851.

Family

Anne Foldsone married Joseph Mee, an Irish barrister from

Armagh Armagh ( ; ga, Ard Mhacha, , "Macha's height") is the county town of County Armagh and a city in Northern Ireland, as well as a civil parish. It is the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland – the seat of the Archbishops of Armagh, the Pri ...

, in 1793; they had six children. A son, Arthur Patrick Mee, practised as an architect, and exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1824 to 1837.

Career

Susan, Lady Carbery (d 1828) by Anne Mee (ca 1770-1851)

As Miss Foldsone, she received royal and aristocratic patronage; and

Horace Walpole Horatio Walpole (), 4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English writer, art historian, man of letters, antiquarian, and Whigs (British political party), Whig politician. He had Strawb ...

, in his letters to

Mary Berry Dame Mary Rosa Alleyne Hunnings (; born 24 March 1935), known professionally as Mary Berry, is an English food writer, chef, baker and television presenter. After being encouraged in domestic science classes at school, she studied catering at ...

of 1790–1, mentioned that she was at

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

, painting the princesses.

The Prince Regent George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...

gave Anne Mee employment in painting portraits of fashionable beauties, and many of these pictures went to Windsor. Some of her portraits were engraved for the ''Court Magazine'', ''La Belle Assemblée'', and similar periodicals. In 1812 she started a serial publication, ''Gallery of Beauties of the Court of George III'', with her own portrait at the front, but just one number was issued.

Selected work

Miniatures

* Mrs.

Mary Robinson Mary Therese Winifred Robinson ( ga, Máire Mhic Róibín; ; born 21 May 1944) is an Irish politician who was the 7th president of Ireland, serving from December 1990 to September 1997, the first woman to hold this office. Prior to her electi ...

(ca. 1790) * Portrait of a Woman, Said to Be Lady Sophia Boyle (ca. 1790) * Portrait of a Woman, Possibly Barbara (1768-1829), Marchioness of Donegall (ca. 1790) * Portrait of Lord Dugannon (ca. 1791-1899) * Portrait Miniature of Frances, Countess of Dartmouth (ca. 1791-1899) * Portrait Miniature of Princess Amelia (ca. 1791-1899) * Anne Mee (ca. 1795) * Elizabeth Boughton, Lady Templetown (1795-1800) * George Stewart 8th Earl of Galloway (1795-1812) * Lady Jane Halliday (1796) * Lady Margaret Janet Fordyce (later Lady Margaret Burges) (18th century) * Lady Hammond (late 18th - early 19th century) * A Young Man, Thought to Be One of the Artist's Sons (late 18th - early 19th century) * A Young Man, Thought to Be One of the Artist's Sons (late 18th - early 19th century) * A Man, Thought to Be Joseph Mee (ca. 1800-1850) * Lady Jersey (ca. 1800-1850) * Lady Catherine Bligh, Lady Charles Stewart (ca. 1804-1865) * An Unknown Lady in a White Dress (ca. 1805-1810) * Isabella, Marchioness of Hertford (ca. 1812-1814) * Anne Katherine MacDonnell, 2nd Countess of Antrim (ca. 1817-1818) * Louisa Barbara Catherine Philips, Countess of Lichfield (1819) * Miss Elliott (1825) * Susan, Lady Carbery (1828) * Lady Harriet Elizabeth Georgiana Howard, Countess Gower, later Duchess of Sutherland (ca.1828) * William Craven, 1st Earl of Craven (19th century) * Charlotte Townshend (before 1851) * Anne 'Nanette' Hawkins, Lady Crewe (date unknown) * Sir George Crewe, 8th Bt. as a Child (date unknown) * Thomas William Anson, 1st Earl of Lichfield, PC, MP (date unknown) * Two Children Embracing (date unknown) * Portrait of a Lady Wearing a Turban (date unknown) * Lt. Col. Thomas Grosvenor (date unknown) * Lady Anne Barnard (date unknown)

Prints after Anne Mee

* Duchess of Rutland (ca. 1787-1813), engraving by

Anthony Cardon Anthony Cardon (1772–1813) was a Flemish engraver in chalk or stipple, who made his career in England and became noted for his engravings and book illustrations. Life Anthony Cardon was born in Brussels in around 1772. He was the son and pupil ...

(1790), engraving by Henry Adlard * Mrs. Anne Murray Keith (1793-1857), engraving by Samuel Freeman * Fanny Crosbie (ca. 1796-1854), engraving by

Maxim Gauci Maxim Gauci (11 February 1774 – 3 November 1854), born Massimo Gauci, was a Maltese lithographer and painter who was active in the United Kingdom in the 19th century. He was an early exponent of lithography for botanical illustration. Life ...

* Frances Marchioness of Bute (1800–1814), engraving by

Caroline Watson Caroline Watson (1761?–1814) was an English stipple engraver. Life The daughter of the Irish engraver James Watson (engraver), James Watson, she was born in London in 1760 or 1761, and studied under her father, who worked in mezzotint. She was ...

* Mary Isabella Dutchess of Rutland (1804), engraving by Charles Turner * Rt. Hon. Maria Letitia Countess Manvers (ca. 1804-1850), engraving by James Thomson * Princess Sophia (1806), drawing by

Henry Bone Henry Bone (6 February 1755 – 17 December 1834) was an English enamel painter who was officially employed in that capacity by three successive monarchs, George III, George IV and William IV. In his early career he worked as a porcelain a ...

* Emily Charlotte Chambers (ca. 1808), engraving by

Henry Hoppner Meyer ::''Also not to be confused with his son, Bernard Francis Hoppner Meyer (20 April 1811-3 June 1888), also an artist.'' Henry Meyer (12 June 1780 - 28 May 1847) was an English portrait painter, more known as a stipple and mezzotint engraver. M ...

* Princess Amelia (1810), engraving by

John Samuel Agar John Samuel Agar (1773–1858) was an English portrait painter and engraver, who exhibited his works at the Royal Academy from 1796 to 1806Bryan and at the British Institution until 1811. He did not exhibit again until 1836. He had been declared ...

* Anne Caulfeild, Countess of Charlemont (1812), engraving by

* Charlotte Ashburnham, Countess of Ashburnham when Viscountess St Asaph (1812), engraving by Niccolò Schiavonetti, published by Anne Mee * Charlotte Sophia, Duchess of Beaufort (1812), engraving by

* Charles Manners, 4th Duke of Rutland (1812), engraving by

* Jane Dalrymple-Hamilton (1812), engraving by

* Katherine Sophia, Lady Heathcote (1812), engraving by

, published by Anne Mee * Mary Isabella Dutchess of Rutland (1812), engraving by

* Mrs. Mee (1812), engraving by Henry Hoppner Meyer * Anne Caulfeild, Countess of Charlemont (1814), drawing by

* Lady Frances Anne Maude, Viscountess Hawarden (early 19th century), engraving by

* Anne Mee (1814), engraving by Henry Richard Cook * Isabella Horatia, Lady Ravensworth, and her daughter (1816-1887), engraving by

Samuel Cousins Samuel Cousins (9 May 1801 in Exeter – 7 May 1887 in London) was a British mezzotinter. Life Cousins was born at Exeter. In 1855 he was elected a full member of the Royal Academy, to which he later gave in trust £15,000 to provide annui ...

* Mrs. Mee (ca. 1819), engraving by Henry Richard Cook, used as a frontispiece for an 1819 edition of

Frances Burney Frances Burney (13 June 1752 – 6 January 1840), also known as Fanny Burney and later Madame d'Arblay, was an English satirical novelist, diarist and playwright. In 1786–1790 she held the post as "Keeper of the Robes" to Charlotte of Mecklen ...

's ''Cecilia'' * Harriet Elizabeth Georgiana Leveson-Gower, Duchess of Sutherland (1820), drawing by

* Richard Grenville, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos (1821), engraving by Robert Cooper * William Beauchamp Lygon, 2nd Earl Beauchamp (1822), engraving by

Edward Scriven Edward Scriven (Alcester 1775 – 23 August 1841 London) was an English engraver of portraits, in the stipple and chalk manner. Scriven was the pre-eminent engraver of his generation, with 210 portraits ascribed to him by the National Port ...

* Richard Grenville Plantagenet Temple, Marquis of Chandos (1822-1839), engraving by Samuel Freeman * Harriet Anne Chichester, Marchioness of Donegall (1823), engraving by James Thomson * Arthur Algernon Earl of Essex (ca. 1825), engraving by Jean Alexandre Allais * Rt. Hon. Maria Letitia Countess Manvers (1827), engraving by James Thomson * The Rt Hon Henrietta Viscountess Dillon (1828), engraving by James Thomson * The Rt. Hon. Lady Anne Beckett (1829), engraving by James Thomson * The Rt. Hon. Lady Anne Beckett (1829), engraving by Thomas Wright * The Rt Honble Lady Isabella Anne Brydges (ca. 1830-1850), engraving by James Thomson * Louisa Catherine Osborne, Duchess of Leeds when Marchioness of Carmarthen (1828-1838), engraving by James Thomson * The Rt Honble Lady Isabella Anne Brydges (ca. 1830-1850), engraving by James Thomson * Corisande Armandine, Countess of Tankerville (1833), engraving by John Cochran * Mrs. George Lane Fox (ca. 1833), engraving by James Thomson, illustration to ''The Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Females'' (1833) * The Rt Honble Anne Catherine Macdonel Countess of Antrim (1834), engraving by Henry Richard Cook * Mary Marchioness of Downshire Baroness of Sandys (ca. 1835-1854), lithograph by

* Right Honble Lady Emily Esther Anne Hesketh (1837), engraving by John Cochran * Lady Elizabeth Reynell (1837), engraved by Daniel John Pound, illustration for ''The Court Magazine'' (1837) * Lady Frances Anne Agar, Viscountess Hawarden, engraving by

Publications of work

* ''The Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Females, Including Beauties of the Courts of George IV. and William IV.'' 2 vols. London: Edward Bull, 1833.

Notes

Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Mee, Anne 1765 births 1851 deaths 18th-century English painters 19th-century English painters 18th-century English women artists 19th-century English women artists English women painters English portrait painters