“CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ” – All recorded works (with or without images known) by Susan Isabel Dacre of which the authot of this web site is aware.

This is list of all Susan Isabel Dacre’s works, confirmed or attributed, compiled from lists of works in public and private collections, auction records, vendor web sites, exhibition catalogues, newspaper mentions and other sources.

Note: some works have titles which are too generalised – e.g., ‘Portrait of a woman’, ‘Coastal scene’, etc. – or have too little or no supporting information to enable them to be listed as single work here.

This page is a ‘work in progress’, begun February 2026, and will take weeks or months to reach some stability. Note that some entries may be accidental duplicates of others where the same painting is known by different names at different times or in different sources, other ‘single’ entries may represent two or more items with the same/similar titles (e.g., Isabel probably painted several ‘Italian girl’ works).

Special thanks to Mike Stewart who has provided much detailed information (referanced [1] below).

  1. A Devonshire fishing boy.
    • History:
      • 1883 – “was available at King Street in 1883 and was “to be shown next week by the Manchester Society of Women Painters… admirable”” (Manchester Evening News, 23 Nov 1883) [1].
  2. A Forest Nymph / Ninfa del bosque.
  3. A gateway in Siena.
  4. A Greek girl.
    • History:
      • 1896 – “was exhibited … by the Royal Scottish Academy” [1].
  5. A Maiden Never so Bold of Spirit, so Still and Quiet.
    • History:
      • 1889 – “was exhibited by the Royal Academy in London (#99). The work was referred to in the Preston Herald 11 May 1889 as No. 60. The painting was noted in The Lady’s Pictorial, London, 18 May 1889″ [1].
  6. An interior with four children.
  7. An Italian Boy.
  8. Assisi cathederal (Cattedrale de Assisi).
  9. Assisi from Perugia.
  10. Assisi from the city walls.
  11. Autumn.
    • History:
      • 1895 – “was exhibited at the 1895 Exhibition of the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts, No. 127: a splendid piece of colour. The head and bust of a woman, with rich and appropriate colour surroundings give expression to the season which produces the “kindly fruits of the earth” and the idea is finely accentuated by the apple held in the right hand. The handling in this canvas is strong and vigorous, and the colour scheme is the richest we have yet seen from the easel of this gifted lady.” (Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, 1 Feb. 1895)” [1].
  12. A view from a window.
    • History:
      • 1925 – “In 1925 a view from a window shown by Manchester Society of Women Painters” [1].
  13. A view in Venice.
  14. Borghese Garden.
    • History:
      • 1882 – “exhibited in 1882 by the Manchester Society of Women Painters. Conveys first vivid impressions of sunshine and cloud rather than the multitude of facts, which the eye discovers after a long examination but conveys them with a vigour and directness which do not fail to charm. (Same painting as An Avenue in the Borgeshe Gardens: Rome?) “The Borghese Gardens”- A landscape shown at the Annual Exhibition in the old Town Hall.” [1].
  15. Collepardo / Collepardo from the valley (assumed to be tha same work).
    • Description: “… panorama of hill beyond hill and the city in the near distance … in which the town is piled on its hillside with the great church crowning it …” (The Manchester Guardian, 28 March, 1913) [1].
    • History:
      • 1927 – Exhibited Manchester Art Gallery.
  16. Court Hill, Clovelly.
    • History:
      • 1883 – “exhibited in 1883 by the Manchester Society of Women Painters. A clever landscape study of the gorse-clad.” [1]. Note: ‘Courth Hill’ in original message assumed to be an error for ‘Court Hill’, referring to the vicinity of Clovelly Court.
  17. Dawn.
    • History:
      • 1903 – “Miss Dacre’s painter-like quality is shown best in this fine study of a dark Italian girl’s head that was exhibited by the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts Exhibition at the City Art Gallery in 1903” [1].
  18. Dorothy.
    • History.
      • 1883 – “exhibited in 1883 by the Manchester Society of Women Painters where it was sold” [1].
  19. Evening / A young girl playing the violin.
    • History:
      • Exhibited “at the fall Manchester Fine Arts Academy at the City art gallery in 1898. It was the central picture of the show” [1].
  20. Facade of San Francesco.
  21. Florentine Mother and Child.
    • Note: A work, Annie Louisa Swynnerton’s Florentine Mother and Child, is also known. These may be the same work with the authorship being wrongly ascribed.
    • History:
      • 1882 – “exhibited in 1882 by the Manchester Society of Women Painters.  A composition shown at the Annual Exhibition in the old Town Hall” / English Woman’s Review, 15 Feb 1882 [1].
  22. Flowers.
    • Title(s): Flowers (title used in private correspondence) [1].
    • Description: “The work included a bumble bee, 2 flies and 2 ants, and possibly a butterfly” (private correspondence).
    • Media: “was done in chalk” (private correspondence). Date/signature/other text: “dated 1856 or 1866 (hard to read) and was signed “S Dacre”” (private correspondence) [1].
    • History:
      • “a copy of [a] work in the Louvre” (private correspondence) [1].
      • A sticker on the back “Rowley’s, fine art dealers, framing, rebuilding and restoring. 5, Bargin Sq., St Ann’s Square, Manchester” (private corrensponence) [1].
    • Location: private collection [1].
  23. Fountain.
    • History:
      • 1992 = “exhibited in 1882 by the Manchester Society of Women Painters. A sketch form Italy or Brittany, Coveys first vivid impressions of sunshine and cloud rather than the multitude of facts, which the eye discovers after a long examination but conveys them with a vigour and directness which do not fail to charm” [1].
  24. From a balcony at Perugia.
  25. Fruit with shrimp.
  26. Il Fratre.
    • Note: A work of similar title and date, Annie Louisa Swynnerton’s Il Frate (The Brother), is also known. These may be the same work with the authorship being wrongly ascribed.
    • History:
      • 1882 – “exhibited in 1882 by the Manchester Society of Women Painters. A composition shown at the Annual Exhibition in the old Town Hall.” [1].
  27. Italian girl with necklace.
  28. Italian girl with red cuffs / Italian child.
  29. Italian women in church.
  30. Landscape with figures and donkeys.
  31. Landscape with trees and stone wall.
  32. Landscape with winding road.
  33. Ludlow Castle.
  34. La Reveuse (The Dreamer).
    • History:
      • 1883 – “A seated figure in white, harmonious and delicate in colour exhibited in 1883 by the Manchester Society of Women Painters.” [1].
  35. Little Annie Rooney.
  36. Loretto.
    • Description: “A portrait of a little girl in an old fashioned chair, with a charming childish face bent a little forward and feet tucked almost out of sight. This was exhibited in 1882 by the Manchester Society of Women Painters / A portrait of a lady is not only full of life and character but displays technical qualities of a very exceptional kind. The painting of the child’s velvet dress is a skillful and delicate piece of work, needing only a rather brighter light on its lower portion to give the full play of light and shade on the material This was exhibited in 1882 by the Manchester Society of Women Painters.” [1].
    • History:
      • 1882 – “exhibited in 1882 by the Manchester Society of Women Painters.  Sold in 1882 for £15 15s.” [1].
  37. Marietta.
    • History:
      • 1880 – Previously exhibited in 1880 at the Royal Academy in London. [1]
      • 1883 – “exhibited … by the Manchester Society of Women Painters where it was sold”. [1]
      • 1978 – “Sold … Sotheby in Amsterdam for £350”. [1]
  38. Portrait of a child [Salford Museum and Art Gallery].
  39. Portrait of Alderman Samuel Melor.
    • History:
      • 1909 – “a very satisfactory portrait” was exhibited at the 1909 Exhibition of the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts. (8 March, 1909 Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, Leeds, Yorkshire” [1].
  40. Portrait of Alderman Sir Thomas Baker (Manchester Art Gallery).
  41. Portrait of Alderman Sir Thomas Baker (Manchester Town Hall).
  42. Portrait of Bertha Edgar / Portrait of a girl in a red dress [Manchester Art Gallery].
  43. Portrait of an Italian woman.
  44. Portrait of a young girl in a satin cap.
  45. Portrait of a young girl in a white dress [Salford Museum and Art Gallery].
  46. Portrait of a young woman in a pink dress.
  47. Portrait of a young woman seated at a round table.
  48. Portrait of a young woman with a lace cuff.
  49. Portrait of Colonel Volbert.
  50. Portrait of Helen.
  51. Portrait of Louise Fitchet.
  52. Portrait of Lydia Becker.
  53. Portrait of Margaret and Dorothy, the daughters of Lawrence Pilkington, Esq.
  54. Portrait of M. Guillaux / A French Officer (assumed to be the same work).
    • History:
      • 1927 – Exhibited Manchester Art Gallery; “Painted with sympathy and understanding illustrates her unfailing instinct for the right use of her medium. A lively little portrait illustrates her unfailing instinct for the right use of her medium” (source?); “a French artillery officer, in which the drawing and colouring are very powerful” (The Manchester Evening News, 23 Nov 1883, p2) [1].
  55. Portrait of Mrs E. E. Houghton.
  56. Portrait of Mr Swynnerton.
    • Note: Annie Louisa Swynnerton also painted a portrait of her husband, Joseph Swynnerton, but that is dated 1908 (or 1905).
    • History:
      • 1882 – Exhibited in 1882 by the Manchester Society of Women Painters [1].
  57. Portrait of Sally and Kitty Dacre / Two girls with yellow flowers.
    • Title(s): Portrait of Sally and Kitty Dacre (this web site); “Two girls with yellow flowers” (title used in private correspondence).
    • Description: two young girls seated, one in a yellow dress, the other in a green dress, several large yellow flowers blooming above their heads, surrounded by broad, heart-shaped green leaves.
    • Media: “painting” (private correspondence).
    • Date/signature/other text: 1888?
    • Location: private collection.
  58. Portrait of the artists’s mother.
  59. Portrait of the Children of James S. Hoyle, Esq.
    • Description: “a picture described as “a delightful portrait of Mr. Hoyle’s two children. The little one is charmingly posed and the colouring is well managed” [1].
    • History:
      • 1927 – “as lent by James S. Hoyle, was exhibited at the Manchester Art Gallery in 1927. (#228) / was at the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts conversazione held in February 1898” [1].
  60. Portrait of Winifred.
  61. San Etene.
    • History:
      • 1880 – “exhibited in 1880 by the Manchester Society of Women Painters, # 4 There is light and luster and shimmer” [1].
  62. San Michele.
    • History:
      • 1880 – “exhibited in 1880 by the Manchester Society of Women Painters, # 4 There is light and luster and shimmer” [1].
  63. Santa Maria dei Monti, Perugia.
  64. Scene with haystack.
  65. Siena, looking towards the cathederal (Duomo di Siena).
  66. Singing Children.
  67. Swans.
  68. The courtyard, Rome.
    • History:
      • 1882 – “exhibited in 1882 by the Manchester Society of Women Painters. A landscape shown at the Annual Exhibition in the old Town Hall” [1].
  69. The Morning Call / Portrait of Edith Susan Dacre / Portrait of a young woman wearing a bonnet.
  70. The Paglia from Orvieto.
  71. The Rain it Raineth Every Day / A Rainy Day / Portrait of Susan Isabel Dacre (the younger, niece of Susan Isabel Dacre senior).
  72. The Roofs of Perugia.
  73. The Walls of Siena.
  74. The Young Violinist.
  75. Watching the Swans.
    • Note: A work titled “Swans” is on record, acquired by Manchester Art Gallery in 1927. It may be a cut down portion of this work. Description: “A large and ambitious picture, which has brilliant and charming passages but fails somewhat as a whole. The canvas perhaps is unnecessarily large and the picture lacks unity. Is this the same as a picture described as Children gazing at swans on a lake? / A large painting painted with sympathy and understanding illustrates her unfailing instinct for the right use of her medium. “The Swans” – a good study of children”. [1]
    • History:
      • “exhibited in 1883 by the Manchester Society of Women Painters”. [1]
      • “annual exhibition of the Manchester Academy in 1887”. [1]
      • “exhibited in the Manchester Art Gallery, on Mosley street in 1927”. [1]
  76. Wetherlam from Little Langdale.

Other references to works, but lacking enough information to assign to work in the above list:

  • “A Portrait was exhibited in 1876 at the annual exhibition of the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts: Miss Susan Isabel Dacre gives evidence in “A Portrait” of that high talent which we have before suspected her of possessing, and we are not quite assured, but we are strongly inclined to think that the work before us indicates genius. We like to see a portrait painted in such a manner; there is originality in the easy pose and line of the figure, and the work is powerful knowing, and remarkable for excellent quality. There is no niggling or hesitation in the work, but it is broad and certain in its touch. That there is a strong resemblance to the original we are convinced, and the intelligence and sparkle in the expression of the feature most happily given render this work something more than a faithful likeness – it is pictorial portraiture. We congratulate the fair artist on a genuine success.” (Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, 8 March 1876) This portrait may be the same as La Ballerina which was exhibited at the same exhibition” [1].
  • “A study of a head – “well painted” was exhibited at the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts, fall exhibition at the City Art Gallery in 1898″ [1].