A Life Painted in Pastel and Grace Born into the windswept landscapes of Dundee, Scotland, in 1723, Catherine Read emerged as one of the most refined portraitists of the eighteenth century. Her life was a tapestry woven with threads of political intrigue, international travel, and artistic brilliance. As the daughter of an affluent Forfarshire family, her early years were shaped by the turbulent tides of the Jacobite rising. When the political landscape shifted following the Battle of Culloden, Read’s family sought sanctuary in Paris, a move that would irrevocably alter the course of her art…