Photos: Jonathan Russell (taken while on public display, Tate Britain).

• Title(s): Mater Triumphalis (multiple sources, including plaque on base of painting); Mater Triomphalis (on c. 1920 black-and-white postcards issued by the Museé du Luxembourg, but ‘Triumphalis’ in othe Musée publications).
• Description: A female nude facing the viewer, arms raised up around her head, head tilted back and face turned slightly to the subject’s right, passive expression. On the right of the subjects feet a gilded dish containing small objects (shells?). Standing on what is presumed to be wet sand with two loose whelk shells in the foreground. Background a blue wash. Behind and above the subject’s right shoulder a wing shown (and possibly another indicated behind left shoulder and raised arm by shadowy paintwork); “Nude figure in upright posture, with arms thrown overhead. Yellowish flesh tits forced by ultramarine background” (New Gallery catalogue, 1892).
• Media: oil on canvas (“huile sur toile”, Museé du Orsay).
• Dimensions: canvas 167.0 x 68.0 cm, frame 199 x 100 cm (Museé du Orsay).
• Signature/date/other text: signed and dated “Annie L Swynnerton / 1892” (image); plaque: “SWYNNERTON (Mrs. A.L.J / Mater Triumphalis”
• History:
  • 1892 – Signed and dated 1892.
  • 1893 – Exhibited New Gallery, no. 187, “Nude figure in upright posture, with arms thrown over head. Yellowish flesh tints forced by ultramarine background” (New Gallery catalogue, 1892).
  • 1893 – Exhibited Chicago World’s Fair and Exposition. (Exhibition catalogue.)
  • 1897 – L’Exposition Internationale de Bruxells [Paris].
  • 1900 – Exhibited Woman’s Exhibition, Earl’s Court, Room 2, no. 1444. (Exhibition catalogue.)
  • 1905 – Exhibited Salon de la Société nationale des beaux-arts, Paris, “SWYNNERTON (Mme A.-L.). Chez Mme Hunter, 30, Old Burlington Street, Londres W / 1150. – Mater triumphalis”. (Exhibition catalogue; Musée d’Orsay.)
  • ?-1915 – Collection of Edmund Davis. (Musée d’Orsay.)
  • 1915 – Gifted to the Musée du Luxembourg by Edmund Davis (according to Musée web page; another source – The Annual Register, 1933 – says the painting was “bought by Rodin, for the Luxembourg Museum“.) (Musée d’Orsay.)
  • 1915-1922 – Musée du Luxembourg. (Musée d’Orsay.)
  • 1918 – Exhibited Grosvenor Gallery, “The Modern Loan Exhibition”. Illustrated in Vogue 51(3), Feb 1918.
  • 1922-1946 – Louvre. (Musée d’Orsay.)
  • 1923 – Exhibited Manchester Art Gallery – Painting by Mrs. Swynnerton, no. 11. (Musée d’Orsay.)
  • 1946-1971 – Musée National d’Art Moderne (Museum of Modern Art), Paris. (Musée d’Orsay.)
  • 1971-1977 – Louvre. (Musée d’Orsay.)
  • 1977 onwards – Musée d’Orsay, Paris. (Musée d’Orsay.)
  • 2017-2018 – Exhibited Denver Art Museum (2017-2018) and Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky (2018). (Musée d’Orsay.)
  • 2019 – Exhibited Musée d’Orsay, Paris, room 59. (Private communication).
  • 2022-2023 – Exhibited La Piscine Musée, Paris. (Musée d’Orsay.)
  • 2024 – Exhibited Tate Britain, London, 16 May to 13 Oct.
  • 2025 – Exhibited at The Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA, 14 Jun to 14 Sep, in the exhibition A Room of Her Own: Women Artist-Activists in Britain, 1875-1945.
• Location: Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

The painting was owned (?-1915) by Sir Edmund Davis, an Australian-born British mining financier, who made his fortune in South Africa. Both he and his wife were passionate art collectors and gave pieces to the Musée du Luxembourg (Paris) and the National Gallery of South Africa, Cape Town.

From Musée National du Luxembourg gallery catalogue, 1915:

Grande figure neu, debout, de face, les bras élevés, au-dessis de la téte et de l.épaule droit, dans une sorte “gloire” formée par un arc-en-ceil, dans l’azur intense et profound. A ses pieds, une coupe doreé pleine de petits coquillages; derrière elle, confondue avec le ciel, la mer dont le flot vient déferler doucement sur le sable. Une petit figure ailée se devine qui parait murmurer a gauche, dans l’oreille.

Large nude figure, standing, facing, arms raised, above the head and the right shoulder in a kind of “glory” formed by a rainbow, in the intense and deep azure. At her feet, a golden cup full of small shells; behind her, confused with the sky, the sea whose waves come to break gently on the sand. A small winged figure can be discerned at the left which seems to be whispering in the ear.

When seeng the painting while on display, it is clear that the wing belongs to the main figure and is not a separate figure ailée (winged figure). I.e., the Mater herself is another of Annie’s winged female figures.

Dark marks, presumably underpainting, have appeared on the legs over the years, not visible on images taken before c. 1915.

Image: Braun et cic., 1915 [1].

References:

• National Portrait Gallery
• British Museum
• Musée d’Orsay.

[1] Braun et cic. eds (1915) Musée National du Luxembourg – Description des ouvrages de peinture, dessins et Aquarelles de l’ecole Britannique Moderne offerts a la France par Edmund Davis suivie de la nomenclature des ouvrages d’artistes Anglais modernes appartnant aux collections nationales. [Description of the works of painting, drawings and watercolors of the Modern British school offered to France by Edmund Davis followed by the nomenclature of works by modern English artists belonging to the national collections.] Paris: 18, Rue Louis-le-Frand.

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Page last updated 8 Oct 2025.