AN exhibition of a Tavistock woman who specialised in miniature art work including portraits of the 19th century royal family, is now on display in the town's museum.

Mary Pearce was born Mary Grace Chenhall in 1849 and was christened at Buckland Monachorum on July 9, 1849.

When she was young, Mary took up oil painting and specialised in miniature work. She was encouraged from an early age by William Gibbons of Plymouth, an artist friend of her father James Chenhall, who gave Mary her first lessons in portrait painting.

When she was 17, Mary visited London and decided to make her talent a career, and studied at South Kensington Museum.

In 1868 she accepted a position as miniature artist, but the following year took up a similar position with another company, where she received the opportunity of executing royal commissions — an honour she retained for many years.

Mary painted a large number of miniatures for the royal family, including the Duke of Clarence, Prince Albert, after his death in 1892, the Princess of Wales and Princess May, and even a portrait of Queen Victoria herself, of which the Queen was so impressed, she commissioned Mary for a painting of Princess Beatrice's children.

Other portraits included the Grand Duke of Hesse, Princess Alice, the Duchess of Teck, Sir Henry Ponsonby and celebrities of that era.

During her career, Mary was awarded a gold medal at the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Exhibitions for her portrait of the Duke and Duchess of York — later King George V and Queen Mary — Queens Elizabeth II's grandparents.

In 1921, when the Prince of Wales visited Tavistock to open the Devon County Show, he stopped at her Meadow Villa home and accepted from her a miniature Mary had painted of his mother Queen Mary.

Linda Elliott, steward at the museum, organised the exhibition.

She said: 'This is the very first time these portraits have been seen in Tavistock as she gave all her work away. The pictures on display in the museum are on loan from Plymouth Museum. If you see any of her works we would be interested to see them.'

Mary died on January 13, 1933, in her home at the Memorial Cottages, Whitchurch, at the age of 83 years old.

• If anyone wishes to see Mary's art work and story, visit the Tavistock Museum by Guildhall Car Park.