On the exterior wall of The McManus: Dundee's Art Gallery and Museum is a small blue plaque proclaiming the name 'Katharine Read, Artist, 1723–1778'.

Katharine Read plaque outside the McManus, Dundee

It is hiding in plain sight – but how many visitors know of the existence of this amazing Dundee-born artist? Thanks to the pioneering work of the Dundee Women's Trail, this trailblazing Dundee artist was rediscovered and, with support from the National Fund for Acquisitions and Art Fund, one of Read's finest paintings is part of The McManus collection.

Willielma Campbell (1741–1786, née Maxwell), Lady Glenorchy

It is believed that Katharine (sometimes spelt Katherine or Catherine) Read was the first Scottish woman to receive training as an artist. As a woman, she could not undertake the full professional training a male artist would expect and she was never able to study life drawing from the nude. Despite this significant drawback, she became a successful professional artist equal to any of her male peers.

A contemporary of Thomas Gainsborough, for a time she was perhaps the most fashionable portrait painter of her day with a contemporary commentator noting: 'All the fine ladies have made it as much the fashion to sit to Miss Read, as to take air in the park.'

Yet, today, in common with so many women artists, she has been almost completely forgotten.

Katherine Read was born in Logie, near Dundee into a well-to-do family. Little is known of her early life, but it is assumed that she received schooling at home before her talents as an artist were recognised. She went on to study under artists in Edinburgh, Paris and Rome where her chaperone Peter Grant believed, 'she'll equal at least if not excel the most celebrated of her profession in Great Britain.'

Katherine was confident of her talents, writing to her brother, 'you'll see I'll top it with the best of them.' By the 1750s she had established her studio in London and her career took off in 1761 when she was commissioned to paint Queen Charlotte and her children.

The McManus is delighted to have acquired a significant three-quarter-length portrait in oils created in 1762 when Read was at the height of her powers. The portrait of Willielma Campbell (née Maxwell), Lady Glenorchy (1741–1786), is one of Read's finest achievements, a sensitive portrait of an 'agreeable, polite, elegant and dignified' young woman enjoying her first year of marriage.

This video about the work was made when it was still on loan from a private collection.

There were a number of professional women artists working in London during this period. Mary Moser and Angelica Kauffmann are the best known, being founder members of the Royal Academy in 1768. Professional women artists of this period are rare, the connection to Scotland rarer and for The McManus Katherine Read's connection with Dundee makes her unique. The acquisition further strengthens a collection that is recognised as being of national importance.

The novelist and diarist Fanny Burney visited Read in her studio.

It is unfortunate that though she admired her artistic skills, she recorded a largely unflattering written portrait of the artist, commenting, 'Miss Read is shrewd and clever... but she is so very deaf that it is a fatigue to enter conversation with her. She is most exceedingly ugly, and of a very melancholic or rather discontented humour... added to which she dresses in a style the most strange and queer that can be conceived & which is worst of all, is always very dirty.'

Germaine Greer refutes these comments in her book The Obstacle Race, noting that a focused artist was likely to be distracted – seeming deaf – and would probably wear dirty clothing because of the nature of their work.

Read would produce over 300 portraits during her lifetime, many of which were issued as mezzotint prints. Why then is she not better known?

Perhaps the most compelling reason is that the majority of her portraits were of women and children and they remain in the families which originally commissioned them. As a result, little of her work can be seen in public collections and her work rarely comes up for auction. Many of her portraits were created in pastel, a much marginalised medium – perhaps because of its early adoption by women artists.

Though she exhibited often in London, her last years were spent working in India and she was never to return to the UK. She died at sea in 1778, eight weeks into her journey back to London. Despite being feted during the height of her career – able to command higher prices than her male peers – she was quickly forgotten. After her death her work was often ascribed to Reynolds, Ramsay and Gainsborough.

In her portrait of Willielma, Lady Glenorchy, Read was to capture another highly unusual woman. Willielma was painted in 1762, shortly after her marriage to John Campbell, Lord Glenorchy. She was known for her beauty, her skills as a musician and enjoyed all of the pastimes available to a wealthy young woman – dancing, travel, theatre, cards – and was a popular and engaging hostess.

As was the fashion at the time, husband and wife commissioned portraits – though unusually from different artists. While Willielma was painted in London by Katherine Read, her husband sat for Thomas Gainsborough in Bath. The portrait went on sale at Christie's in 2022.

John Campbell, Viscount Glenorchy (1738–1771)

It is likely that he was taking the waters for his health, early intimations of his premature death aged 33 in 1771. His entire estate was inherited by Willielma, who had already renounced her 'life of thoughtless gaiety' and turned to God. Now widowed and with private means, she was able to live as an independent woman.

She spent the rest of her life – and considerable wealth – supporting Christian education and the establishment of chapels in Exmouth, Bristol, Carlisle and Workington. The Lady Glenorchy Church at the top of Leith Walk in Edinburgh survives as a magnificent frontage to the Omni Centre.

Anna Robertson, Fine and Applied Art Manager, Leisure and Culture Dundee

Find out more about The McManus collections and the Dundee Women's Trail

A version of this article was originally published by The Fleming Collection

Katharine Read's portrait of Lady Glenorchy has just returned to the McManus after being on loan to the Tate for the exhibition 'Now You See Us'