A WATERCOLOUR was recently for sale by auction (unsold) in Ireland, listed as by “Annie Swynnerton (1844-1933)”.

Thanks to a remarkable piece of research and piecing together of information by Alastair Swinnerton, the actual artist is (as sure as one can be of such things) one Annie Lyle Robinson …

… a Belfast hotel keeper … (born 1897, don’t know what the other initials stand for), older sister to the Flora JC Robinson mentioned in the article [www.thegazette.co.uk]. They were partners in the Shaftesbury Hotel Belfast, and the article is about the dissolving of their partnership in 1949 … the location [is] Blackhead Lighthouse on the Antrim coast, walking distance from Forthill, Templecorran where Annie ILM was living at the time of the 1911 census.

Many thanks to Alastair. I had seen the piece before but never listed it on this site because it was so unlike any of her other work. I had, however, begun theorizing that it was one of her early watercolours, and that she perhaps had additional previously unrecorded middle names, or was just being creative with her signature. Shows how wrong one can be!

Also profound thanks to the current owner of the work, who had very kindly contacted me prior to the sale, and even offered to have it withdrawn so that I could study it. I hope the fact that it can now be correctly attributed lessens any disappointment that it appears not to be by the Annie L. Swynnerton of this web site.

Thanks also to Morgan O’Driscoll auctioneers for their help.

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