Annie Swynnerton

Annie Louisa Robinson Swynnerton
Born Annie Louisa Robinson
(1844-02-26)26 February 1844
Hulme, Manchester, England
Died 24 October 1933(1933-10-24) (aged 89)
Hayling Island, England
Nationality English
Education Manchester School of Art, Académie Julian
Spouse(s) Joseph Swynnerton

Annie Louisa Robinson Swynnerton (1844 – 1933) was an English painter of allegorical, figure and portrait paintings. She studied at Manchester School of Art, Académie Julian, and in Rome. Swynnerton was influenced by George Frederic Watts and Edward Burne-Jones. John Singer Sargent appreciated her work and helped her to become the first elected woman member at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1922. Swynnerton painted portraits of Henry James and Millicent Fawcett. Her works are in collections in the England, Scotland, and abroad. She was married to sculptor Joseph Swynnerton. They lived together in Rome. Swynnerton was a feminist and suffragette. Her middle name is sometimes spelled Louise and her surname is also spelled Swinnerton.

Early life

Annie Louisa Robinson was born on 26 February 1844 in Hulme, Manchester.[1][lower-alpha 1] Her parents were Francis Robinson, a solicitor, and Ann Sanderson.[1] Swynnerton had six sisters. She made and sold watercolor paintings to supplement the family's income during a difficult financial period.[5] Emily, her sister, was also an artist.[3]

Education

Swynnerton trained at the Manchester School of Art, beginning in 1871. She won a gold prize and a scholarship for an oil and watercolour painting.[1] From 1874 to 1876, she took art lessons in Rome along with her friend and fellow artist, Susan Isabel Dacre, who was also from the Greater Manchester area. The women then studied at the Académie Julian in Paris from 1877 to 1880.[1][5] Swynnerton was influenced by the works of Jules Bastien-Lepage.[1] She lived in Manchester in 1880 and by 1882 was living in London.[5]

Artist

Style

Swynnerton painted portraits, figures and allegorical scenes.[3] George Frederic Watts and Edward Burne-Jones were supporters of her career.[6] According to Linda Murray, "She was much influenced by Watts, and many of her subjects were of the allegorical or symbolic type which was his forte. Her drawing was solid, and she had a sculptural grasp of form allied to fresh, broken colour displaying affinities with Impressionism."[6] An example of one of her allegorical works is The Sense of Sight, which depicts an earth-visiting angel who finds and connects to heaven using her vision.[7]

Swynnerton's works incorporated aspects of Neoclassicism, Pre-Raphaelitism and Impressionism.[1] The Magazine of Art described one of her works, "[A] highly imaginative design by [Wynnerton] is Mater Triumphalis. The limbs of the figure are somewhat heavy in outline, whilst there is a certain metallic appearance in the colouring that is quite apart from the idea of the flowing life-blood in a human body."[8] She was also adept at painting children.[6]

Career

Dacre and Swynnerton shared a studio. In 1879, the two women founded the Manchester Society of Women Painters, which offered art education and exhibitions. Emily Robinson was also a member. Swynnerton painted Dacre's portrait, which was exhibited in 1880 at the Royal Academy of Arts.[3] It was then given to the Manchester Art Gallery.[5] She was the second woman to sit on the Liverpool Autumn Exhibition hanging committee in 1895.[3]

Swynnerton painted portraits of members of the Garrett family, including Agnes (1885); Louisa, a member of the Manchester National Society for Women's Suffrage;[5] Millicent Garrett Fawcett, which was purchased by the Chantrey Bequest for the nation and is at the Tate Gallery;[5][9] and Louisa Garrett Anderson. She painted portraits of people close to the Garretts, including Henry James and Rev. William Gaskell, husband of novelist Elizabeth Gaskell.[5] Ethel Smyth was a patron to Swynnerton. John Singer Sargent made a painting of Swynnerton and Smyth's sister, Mrs. Charles Hunter.[5]

With an initial introduction by Burne-Jones,[1] Swynnerton exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts from 1879 to 1886 and then 1902 to 1934.[3] John Singer Sargent appreciated and purchased her work. He gave the nation The Oreads made by Swynnerton.[6] He was instrumental in her election in 1922[5] to become the first female associate of the Royal Academy since the 18th century[1] and the first woman to be elected into the organization.[10][lower-alpha 2] Swynnerton's work was also exhibited at other English, Scottish, and international exhibitions.[3] In 1893, Florence Nightingale at Scutari was shown at Women's Exhibition at the Chicago World's Exposition.[3][5] According to Hellary Fraser, author of Women Writing Art History in the Nineteenth Century, the work showed the manner with which women artists could convey tender feeling with strong artistic composition and colour.[12]

Feminist

She was an active feminist and suffragette,[13] by 1889 when she signed the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies' Declaration in Favour of Women's Suffrage.[5] Dacre and Swynnerton, part of a feminist community in Manchester, believed that the bonding as women steeled them against societal and traditional roles for woman.[14]

Personal life

She met sculptor Joseph William Swynnerton, from the Isle of Man, when she had been in Rome. They married in 1883[5][6][lower-alpha 3] and lived primarily in Rome[3][6] and had a studio in Sheppard's Bush in London. The Swynnertons were married until 1910, when he died.[1][3][6]

Swynnerton's eyesight deteriorated in her later years.[10] Following her husband's death, she lived in Chelsea, London and Rome, before finally settling on Hayling Island, England.[3][6] She died there in 1933.[1] In her will, and in memory of Susan Isabel Dacre, she left a bequest to Francis Dodd, an artist.[5]

Swynnerton was described as follows:

She was a talented artist and an accomplished woman, though scarcely one of whom it could be said she possessed a charm of matter. Indeed, by maintaining the courage of her convictions she was at times embarrassingly outspoken. She had a slight stutter.
— Gladys Storey, Dickens and Daughter[15]

Collections

Collection Location Works
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums Aberdeen, Scotland
  • Landscape with Trees[16]
Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology Oxford, England
  • Head of a Bacchante[17]
Birmingham Museums Trust Birmingham, England
Bradford Museums and Galleries Bradford, England
Brighton and Hove Museums and Art Galleries Brighton, England
  • Girl with a Lamb[20]
Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum Cheltenham, England
  • Oil Sketch of a Pony[21]
Gallery Oldham Oldham, England
  • Cupid and Psyche[22]
Glasgow Museums Glasgow, Scotland
  • A Dryad[23]
  • The Soul's Journey: The Soul's Awakening[24]
Manchester City Art Gallery Manchester, England[6]
  • Adoration of the Infant Christ (after Perugino)[25]
  • An Italian Mother and Child[26]
  • Crossing the Stream[27]
  • S. Isabel Dacre[28]
  • The Dreamer[29]
  • Reverend William Gaskell[30]
  • Illusions[31]
  • Interior of San Miniato, Florence[32]
  • Italian Landscape[33]
  • Montagna Mia[34]
  • The Olive Gatherers[35]
  • Rain Clouds, Monte Gennaro[36]
  • Mrs A. Scott-Elliot and Children[37]
  • The Southing of the Sun[38]
  • The Town of Siena[39]
  • The Vagrant[40]
Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, New York
  • Dream of Italy, owned by the museum in 1933[6][41]
Musée d'Orsay Paris, France
  • Mater Triumphalis[42]
National Gallery of VictoriaMelbourne, Australia
National Museums Liverpool Liverpool, England
  • The Sense of Sight[44]
Nottingham City Museums and Galleries Nottingham, England
  • Mrs Florence H. Musgrave[45]
Royal Academy of Arts London, England
Royal Holloway, University of London London, England
  • Geoffrey and Christopher Herringham[47]
Salford Museum & Art Gallery Salford, England
Tate Gallery London, England
  • The Convalescent[49]
  • Count Zouboff[50]
  • Dame Millicent Fawcett, CBE, LLD[51]
  • Miss Elizabeth Williamson on a Pony[52]
  • New Risen Hope[53]
  • Oreads[54]

Notes

  1. ↑ Her birth record shows that she was born in the Chorlton registration district (Hulme was in that district).[2] Her place of birth is also given as Kersal[3] and Salford.[4]
  2. ↑ Two founding members of the Royal Academy of the Arts in 1768 were Mary Moser and Angelica Kauffman, but women could not attend life classes or hold office. Women were discouraged from studying at the school following Moser and Kauffman's deaths.[11] The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography says that Swynnerton was the first woman since the 1800s to become an associate.[1] The Royal Academy of Arts site say that she's the first woman to be elected into the organization (Moser and Kauffman were co-founders).[10] Laura Knight also became an associate member in the 1920s and became the first woman to become a full member in 1936.[11]
  3. ↑ Gray says that they were married about 1886.[3]
  4. ↑ New-risen Hope at National Gallery of Victoria is a different version of the same theme as the New Risen Hope at Tate.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Swynnerton [née Robinson], Annie Louisa (1844–1933)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/60287. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ↑ "Search: Annie Robinson - birth 1844". FindMyPast. Retrieved November 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Sara Gray (2009). "Annie Louisa Swynnerton". The Dictionary of British Women Artists. Casemate Publishers. pp. 255–256. ISBN 978-0-7188-3084-7.
  4. ↑ Terry Wyke; Harry Cocks (1 January 2004). Public Sculpture of Greater Manchester. Liverpool University Press. p. 461. ISBN 978-0-85323-567-5.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Elizabeth Crawford (2 September 2003). The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928. Routledge. p. 669. ISBN 1-135-43402-6.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Cathy Hartley (15 April 2013). Historical Dictionary of British Women. Routledge. p. 418. ISBN 978-1-135-35533-3.
  7. ↑ "Making their mark.(Features)". Daily Post. Liverpool, England: MGN Ltd. 18 July 2007. Retrieved 20 November 2014 – via HighBeam Research. (subscription required (help)).
  8. ↑ Marion Harry Spiellmann (1892). The Magazine of Art. Cassell, Petter & Galpin. p. 295.
  9. ↑ Susan P. Casteras; Colleen Denney (1 January 1996). The Grosvenor Gallery: A Palace of Art in Victorian England. Yale Center for British Art. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-300-06752-1.
  10. 1 2 3 "Annie Swynnerton, A.R.A". Royal Academy of Arts. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  11. 1 2 Julia M. Gergits (1 January 1999). "Royal Academy of Arts". In Helen Tierney. Women's Studies Encyclopedia. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 1236, 1237. ISBN 978-0-313-31073-7.
  12. ↑ Hilary Fraser (4 September 2014). Women Writing Art History in the Nineteenth Century: Looking Like a Woman. Cambridge University Press. p. 172. ISBN 978-1-316-06209-8.
  13. ↑ Elizabeth Crawford, The Women's Suffrage Movement, London, Routledge, 2001; p. 669.
  14. ↑ Clarissa Campbell Orr (1 January 1995). Women in the Victorian Art World. Manchester University Press. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-7190-4122-8.
  15. ↑ Gladys Storey (1939). Dickens and Daughter. New York: Haskell House Publishers. p. 200. LCCN 79-164657.
  16. ↑ "Landscape with Trees". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  17. ↑ "Head of a Bacchante". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  18. ↑ "Assisi". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  19. ↑ "Oceanid". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  20. ↑ "Girl with a Lamb". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  21. ↑ "Oil Sketch of a Pony". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  22. ↑ "Cupid and Psyche". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  23. ↑ "A Dryad". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  24. ↑ "The Soul's Journey: The Soul's Awakening". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  25. ↑ "Adoration of the Infant Christ". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  26. ↑ "An Italian Mother and Child". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  27. ↑ "Crossing the Stream". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  28. ↑ "S. Isabel Dacre". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  29. ↑ "The Dreamer". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  30. ↑ "Reverend William Gaskell". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  31. ↑ "Illusions". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  32. ↑ "Interior of San Miniato, Florence". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  33. ↑ "Italian Landscape". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  34. ↑ "Montagna Mia". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  35. ↑ "The Olive Gatherers". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  36. ↑ "Rain Clouds, Monte Gennaro". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  37. ↑ "Mrs A. Scott-Elliot and Children". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  38. ↑ "The Southing of the Sun". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  39. ↑ "The Town of Siena". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  40. ↑ "The Vagrant". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  41. ↑ Arts Magazine 8. Art Digest Incorporated. 1933. p. 19.
  42. ↑ "Mater Triumphalis". Musée d'Orsay. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  43. ↑ "New-risen hope". Melbourne, Australia: National Gallery of Victoria. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  44. ↑ "The Sense of Sight". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  45. ↑ "Mrs Florence H. Musgrave". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  46. ↑ "The Letter". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  47. ↑ "Geoffrey and Christopher Herringham". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  48. ↑ "Tryst". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  49. ↑ "The Convalescent". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  50. ↑ "Count Zouboff". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  51. ↑ "Dame Millicent Fawcett, CBE, LLD". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  52. ↑ "Miss Elizabeth Williamson on a Pony". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  53. ↑ "New Risen Hope". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  54. ↑ "Oreads". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 19 November 2014.

Further reading

External links

Media related to Annie Louise Swynnerton at Wikimedia Commons

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