Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Grace, Mary
GRACE, Mrs. MARY (d. 1786?), painter, was the daughter of a shoemaker named Hodgkiss. She had a natural gift for art, and without any instruction attained some proficiency as a portrait-painter, and also considerable employment as a copyist. In 1762 as Mrs. Grace she exhibited with the Incorporated Society of Artists, sending a portrait of herself, a whole length of a young lady, ‘A Ballad-singer,’ and ‘An Old Woman's Head.’ In 1763 she exhibited again, sending among other pictures a portrait of Mr. Grace. She continued to exhibit up to 1769, sending in 1765 ‘The Death of Sigismunda,’ and in 1767 ‘Antigonus, Seleucus, and Stratonice.’ About 1769 she appears to have lost her husband, and retired from practice to Homerton, where she is said to have died at an advanced age in 1786. Her own portrait was engraved and published in 1785. A portrait by her of the Rev. Thomas Bradbury was engraved in mezzotint by J. Faber in 1749, and again by J. Spilsbury.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1880; Edwards's Anecdotes of Painters; Catalogues of the Society of Artists (Anderdon bequest, print room, Brit. Mus.)]