Mid-Georgian Portraits Catalogue

Mary Berry (1763-1852), Writer

Occasional writer and traveller; Horace Walpole’s literary executrix; her Works (1844) included plays and historical studies; from 1791 she lived with her sister Agnes (1764-1852) at Little Strawberry Hill, a house given them by Walpole.

‘[she] understands Latin, and is a perfect Frenchwoman in her language ... sweet, with fine dark eyes, that are very lively when she speaks, with a symmetry of face that is the more interesting from being pale ... [her face] is formed for a sentimental novel but is ten times fitter for a fifty times better thing, genteel comedy’ (Horace Walpole, 1788).

‘[She] has an interesting and engaging manner. She appears to be 2 or 3 and thirty. Indifferent health is expressed in her countenance’ (Joseph Farington, 1793).


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Mid-Georgian Portraits 1760-1790, National Portrait Gallery, 2004, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.