A work has appeared at auction in Paris (FAAP auction house, Rue de Beaune, just along from the Musée d'Orsay) called 'bathers' or 'nude study,' of historical and academic interest because an inscription on the back identifies it as having been bought at the posthumous studio sale of 1934 - the only item specifically identified …

Continue reading Another work at auction …

This work has appeared for auction at Woolley and Wallace, Salisbury, 31st May: The signature on the back, as indistinct as it is, does look very much to be Annie's, with her typical round 'A' and final 't' like an upsidedown 'L.' A note on the back says the view is of a location in …

Continue reading ‘View along a garden path’ at auction.

I HAVE BEEN exmining catalogue entries for the Royal Academy summer exhibitions, 1880-1883, the period when the Manchester Society of Women Painters was created, up to Annie's move to Rome. Specifically, works by women artists. The full list is HERE. The main observations are: The preponderance of male artists, comprising 88% of the works exhibited, …

Continue reading Women at the Royal Academy / Rhoda Holmes Nicholls / and …

Discovered a reference stating Oleander was one of the works exhibited at the Manchester Society of Women Painters exhibition of 1883 (The Guardian, 22 Nov 1883), and declared to be a fine work except for resemblance to the work of Lawrence Alma-Tadema, although the writer doesn't explain why he considers this a negative point. This …

Continue reading Oleander exhibited 1883 / Unwinding the Skein is not Parcæ / Danæ (Danaë)

Portrait of Florence Monkhouse by Francis Dodd. Had the pleasure of visiting a relative of Mary Florence Monkhouse (1856-1946). Many thanks for permission to reproduce images here. Florence, as she was generally known, was a key member of the Manchester art scene in the late 1800s. I learned a little of the family history and …

Continue reading Mary Florence Monkhouse and others.

Had a kind email from a visitor to the web site, whose great aunt had been a friend of Susan Isabel Dacre. They comment on how the latter was only ever known as 'Isabel' or 'Miss Dacre' in her own time. I have therefore largely rewritten these web pages to reflect this. (The full name …

Continue reading ‘Susan’ will be referred to as ‘Isabel’ from now on.

Both versions of New-risen Hope, the Tate (UK) and the Melbourne (Australia) versions, are dated by Annie '1904.' However, The Magazine of Art mentions that "New Risen Hope" was on display at the New Gallery in 1903. New-risen Hope (Tate) and New-risen Hope (Melbourne) painted dates. A trivial point, perhaps, but it does illustrate how …

Continue reading ‘New-risen Hope’ exhibited one year earlier than nominal date.

I've just realised there are two versions of Isabel Dacre's Portrait of Alderman Thomas Baker. A simpler version with his head and upper body in front of a book case, gifted by Henry Boddington to Manchester Art Gallery in 1911, and a more finished version of him holding a book, which hangs in Manchester Town …

Continue reading There are two verions of Dacre’s ‘Portrait of Thomas Baker.’

Thanks to information and images provided by the owner of Unwinding the Skein, there appears to have been a third figure on the right of the canvas, but which has been cut off. The edge of the skirts of a third dress appears to be just visible. The owner also notes how the right-hand figure …

Continue reading Unwinding the Skein appears to be a cut-down canvas.

THANKS AGAIN to Michael S., god-son of Lady Mercy Marter (1904-1968), for sharing the following stories about Mercy and her mother, "Daisy" Greville, Countess of Warwick. 'Daisy' and Lady Mercy Greville, 1910. Photo: NPG. Quite some time after she had decided that her child-bearing days were over, Daisy [Countess of Warwick] was informed during a …

Continue reading More on Lady Mercy Marter, née Greville / Annie I. L. M. Swynnerton painting location