Photos: Jonathan Russell.

The date when this was painted is unknown – anytime from 1899 (the date Millicent Fawcett became an honorary doctor of law) to c. 1920.

“Half of the portrait was painted in the garden of Dame Millicent’s house in [2] Gower Street [Bloomsbury] and the other half at her [Annie’s] own home” (Elizabeth Crawford in Woman and her Sphere).

A slightly smaller ‘Portrait of Dame Millicent Fawcett, in academical gown’ is mentioned in the posthumous studio sale of 1934, and is assumed to be the version now in the Palace of Westminster – that version is named ‘Portrait of Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett (Westminster)‘ on this web site.

• Media: oil on canvas.
• Dimensions: 740 x 827 mm (0.61 m²).
• History: c. 1910 CThe Woman’s Leader and the Common Cause,* 9 May 1930, p2, “This portrait … was painted over twenty years ago, though never before exhibited.”; ref.); exhibited Royal Academy, 1930; ‘Presented [to the Tate] by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 1930‘; exhibited Manchester Art Gallery, 23 Feb 2018 to 6 Jan 2019; Tate Britain, November 2022, “Spotlights: Annie Swynnerton” exhibition.
• Location: Tate.

[*The Woman;s Leader and the Common Cause was a newspaper that supported National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies.]

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