Annie Swynnerton

Enlightening small exhibition at Tate Britain on suffragette artist Annie Swynnerton.

I must admit I had not heard of Swynnerton and was surprised to find she was the first woman elected to the Royal Academy since the founding members. I had always thought that was Dame Laura Knight.

The work had a slightly Pre-Raphaelite feel to some of it. I liked this rather overblown roundel which feels like a protest that she was not able to work from live models at art school. My favourite was this rather louche Russian professor. Surely, he should be a cover for a reprint of Proust.

I did find Swynnerton’s life more inspiring than her art but how good up see her acknowledged with a good show.

Closes 24 September 2023


 

Comments

jonathan1964 said…
Yes, an artist of variable quality. Her best her works are extraordinary, I think, such as the S. Isabel Dacre portrait in the exhibition, others are rather passable, I admit. These are the works in Tate's own collection, plus a couple on loan. In her times she was best friends with Sargent, Burn Jones and others, and they praised her to the heavens, but, as with female art in general in the late 19th/early 20th century, she struggled to be taken seriously by major institutions, meaning much of her best work disappeared into the ether rather than enter public collections.

Delighted to discover your blog. (Mine is www.annielouisaswynnerton.com, something I started it after visiting a exhibition of Annie's works in Manchester in 2018.)
21 February, 2023
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