Joan Carlile

Joan Carlile
Joan Carlile's Portrait of a lady, possibly Lady Anne Wentworth. Oil on canvas (125 x 101 cm)
Born	Joan Palmer c. 1606
Died	1679 London
Resting place	Churchyard of Petersham Parish Church
Nationality	English
Known for	Portrait painting
Spouse(s)	Lodowick Carlell or Carlile

Joan Carlile or Carlell or Carliell (c. 1606–79), an English portrait painter, was one of the very first women to practise painting professionally.

Joan Carlile was born as Joan Palmer, the daughter of William Palmer, an official in the Royal Parks. Carlile copied the works of Italian masters and reproduced them in miniature. She was also an accomplished painter in her own right.

In July 1626 she married Lodowick Carlell or Carlile, Gentleman of the Bows to Charles I and a poet and dramatist, who, as keeper/deputy ranger at Richmond Park during the Commonwealth period, had accommodation at Petersham Lodge, which was demolished in the 1690s by Lawrence Hyde, Earl of Rochester. The couple moved to Covent Garden in 1654 but returned to Petersham two years later after the restoration of the monarchy, when Lodowick was given the post of "Keeper of the house or Lodge and the Walk at Petersham". They returned to London in 1665.

Lodowick died in 1675 and was buried in the churchyard of Petersham Parish Church (which was then in Surrey and is now in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames). Joan, who was then living in the parish of St Martin-in-the-Fields, died in 1679, and was buried beside her husband on 27 February.

They had two children, James (who was married to Ellen; they had two sons, James and Lodowick) and Penelope (married to John Fisher, a lawyer of the Middle Temple).