Margaret Carpenter (painter)

Margaret Sarah Carpenter (Salisbury 1793 – 13 November 1872 London), born Margaret Sarah Geddes, was a British painter. Noted in her time, she mostly painted portraits in the manner of Sir Thomas Lawrence. She was a close friend of Richard Parkes Bonington.

She was born in Salisbury, the daughter of Captain Alexander Geddes, who was of an Edinburgh family, and Harriet Easton. She was taught art by a local drawing-master. Her first art studies were made from the pictures at Longford Castle, belonging to Lord Radnor.

In 1812, one of her copies of the head of a boy was awarded a medal by the Society of Arts, who awarded her another medal in 1813, and a gold medal in 1814. She went to London in 1814, and soon established her reputation as a fashionable portrait painter. She exhibited a portrait of Lord Folkestone at the Royal Academy in 1814, and a picture entitled ‘The Fortune Teller’ at the British Institution. She exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy between 1818 and 1866. She also exhibited at the British Institution and at the Suffolk Street Gallery.

Of her Head of a Polish Jew, exhibited at the British Institution in 1823, a reviewer wrote: "It very rarely happens that a specimen of art like this is produced from the hand of a lady: Here are colour, light, strength and effect, and anatomical drawing". This painting was bought for 45 guineas by the Marquess of Stafford, one of the most influential art patrons of the day, who had previously bought her medal-winning painting of 1813. The Picture has recently resurfaced at auction (with some fire damage) and been purchased back by a family relative in December 2013 for restoration.

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