Catriona Seth
Humanities Scholarship
(History) – Marshal Foch Professor of French Literature, All Souls College, University of Oxford – United Kingdom
Catriona Seth's current project concerns a talented Scottish painter, Katherine Read (1723-1778), whose career took her from Dundee, where she was born, to France, Italy, England and then India. She defies most of our expectations regarding women artists. Seth is trying to piece together her different networks. She aims to examine the success Read achieved in her lifetime, particularly as a portraitist, and the way she shaped her career, but also the reasons for her absence from the canon.