Penelope Carwardine

Penelope Carwardine (1730?–1804; married name Penelope Butler) was an English miniature painter.

Penelope Carwardine was born in about 1730, the eldest daughter of John Carwardine of Thinghills Court in Withington, Herefordshire and Anne Bullock of Preston Wynn, who was also a miniature painter. Her father having ruined the family estates, she took to miniature painting, instructed by Ozias Humphrey, and had acquired her art by 1754.

Carwardine exhibited at the Society of Artists in 1761, 1762, 1771, and 1772. She was a close friend of Sir Joshua and Miss Reynolds; and among Sir Joshua's works is a portrait of one of her sisters, painted by him as a present for her. Many of her miniatures remained in the possession of her family as of 1887, together with three portraits of Carwardine: one by Thomas Bardwell, 1750; one by a Chinese artist, about 1756; the third by George Romney, about 1790.

Carwardine married James Butler, organist of Ranelagh, St. Margaret's, and St. Anne's, Westminster on 26 May 1763 at St James's, Piccadilly. She outlived her husband, dying at Hereford in 1804.