Eglington Margaret Pearson facts for kids

Eglington Margaret Pearson was a talented English artist who specialized in painting on stained glass. She was born in 1746 and passed away in 1823.

Her Life and Art

Eglington Margaret Pearson was the daughter of Samuel Paterson, a well-known bookseller in London. Her father also bought and sold old stained glass. He even started his own factory for making stained glass.

In 1768, Eglington married James Pearson. He was also an artist who painted on glass. They lived in London.

Becoming Famous

Eglington and James Pearson became well-known for their art. They showed their work at art exhibitions between 1775 and 1777. Eglington often painted pictures of birds, especially parrots and parakeets. Most of her early artworks were painted on a single sheet of glass.

The Pearsons used a special technique. They painted images using colorful enamels on clear glass sheets. Then, they heated the glass in a very hot oven. This made the colors stick permanently to the glass.

Exhibitions and Famous Copies

Throughout the 1780s and 1790s, the Pearsons regularly showed their art. They held exhibitions in their homes in London. They also displayed their work at the new Pantheon building on Oxford Street.

Later in her career, Eglington Pearson started making copies of famous paintings on glass. In 1791, she finished her first set of copies. These were based on the seven Raphael Cartoons. These famous drawings were kept at Windsor Castle at the time.

People thought her copies were amazing. One newspaper in 1791 called them "the most capital Set of Pictures for a private Chapel." A rich person, the Marquess of Lansdowne, bought one set of her copies. Another set was bought by Sir Gregory Page Turner. One piece from the Marquess of Lansdowne's set can still be seen today at Bowood House. Eglington finished her third set of these copies about 18 months before she died.

Working Together

Even though Eglington and James usually worked on their own pieces, they sometimes created art together. For example, in 1775, they made a stained glass copy of a painting called Salutation by Carlo Maratti. Later, in 1793, they worked together on a copy of Aurora by Guido Reni.

Eglington Margaret Pearson passed away on February 14, 1823. You can see examples of her beautiful stained glass art in museums today. Some of her work is in the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Corning Museum of Glass. Her copy of The Blacksmith’s Shop by Joseph Wright of Derby, made in 1789, is at Burghley House.