Joan Carlile Biography

Joan Carlile or Carlell or Carliell (c.1606-1679) was an English portrait painter. She was one of the first English women known to practise painting professionally. Before Carlile, known professional female painters working in Britain were born elsewhere in Europe, principally the Low Countries.

Joan Carlile was born as Joan Palmer, the daughter of William Palmer, an official in the Royal Parks and his wife, Mary. Carlile copied the works of Italian masters and reproduced them in miniature. She was also an accomplished painter in her own right.

In July 1626 she married Lodowick Carlell or Carlile, Gentleman of the Bows to Charles I and a poet and dramatist, who, as keeper/deputy ranger at Richmond Park during the Commonwealth period, had accommodation at Petersham Lodge, where they lived from 1637 to 1663. The couple moved to Covent Garden in 1654 but returned to Petersham two years later after the restoration of the monarchy, when Lodowick was given the post of "Keeper of the house or Lodge and the Walk at Petersham". They returned to London in 1665.

Lodowick died in 1675 and was buried in the churchyard of Petersham Parish Church (which was then in Surrey and is now in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames). Joan, who was then living in the parish of St Martin-in-the-Fields, died in 1679, and was buried beside her husband on 27 February.

They had three children, Penelope (who married John Fisher, a lawyer of the Middle Temple in 1657), James (who was married to Ellen; they had two sons, James and Lodowick) and Edmund.

In 2016, the Tate acquired Carlile's Portrait of an Unknown Lady which she painted between 1650 and 1655.

A painting from circa 1648 of Elizabeth Murray, Countess of Dysart with her husband and sister has been attributed to Carlile and is held by the National Trust. It is on display at Ham House. Another painting of the Countess of Dysart, attributed to Carlile, is held by the Thirlestane Castle Trust.

The Carlile Family with Sir Justinian Isham in Richmond Park is held at Lamport Hall in Lamport, Northamptonshire. Also known as A Stag Hunt, The Stag Hunt, or Stag hunt in Richmond Park, it was exhibited at the Tate Gallery in 1972. This work by Carlile has assisted in attributing other artwork in similar styles to be hers.