Image: exhibition catalogie ‘PAINTINGS BY MANCINI, McEVOY, A. L. SWYNNERTON. The Alpine Club Gallery [London] / March, 1956.”

• Title(s): AN IMAGE OF DESIRE mentioned in The Evening News, Feb 13 1933, and other papers / 1931 photograph (title formerly used on this web site).
• Description: Winged female figure, head turned upwards – an incomplete work only known from a photograph taken c. 1931.
• Media: ?
• Dimensions: Very approximately 1.6 x 1.5 m.
• Signature: ?
• History:
  • c. 1931 – Only known from single newspaper photograph.
  • 1932 Mar 26 – In an Express interview of 1933, Annie says it is an allegorical work based on the works of Shelley. She had the painting returned from Rome so she could finish it, intending it for submission to the Royal Academy that summer, but was too unwell, submitting three earlier paintings instead. She said, “In the winged figure, I have tried to express the desire of the moth for the star – the ‘something’  we all strive for in this life, but never attain” (Alaistair Swinnerton).
  • 1956 Mar – The image is used in exhibition catalogue ‘PAINTINGS BY MANCINI, McEVOY, A. L. SWYNNERTON. The Alpine Club Gallery [London] / March, 1956.
• Location: ?

Note similarity to The Head of a Woman:

Newspaper photographs taken c. 1933 show the work at different stages of development.

The Shelley lines referred to are from his poem, ‘To …,’ written in 1821 and published in 1824 …

The desire of the moth for the star,
Of the night for the morrow,
The devotion to something afar
From the sphere of our sorrow?

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Page last updated 21 Nov 2025.