PORTRAIT OF SUSAN ISABEL DACRE / MON AMIE.

Photos: Jonathan Russell.

  • Title(s): Portrait of Susan Isabel Dacre (this web site); S. Isabel Dacre (Manchester Art Gallery).
  • Description: Bust portrait of the subject, head turned slightly to the left but looking directly at the viewer, wearing a dark mantle with fur or feathered collar, pendant gold earring with two blue beads, background a plain dark brown.
  • Media: oil on canvas (Manchester Art Gallery).
  • Dimensions: “framed: 11.5 cm (depth); 91 cm (height); 72.1 cm (width) / unframed: 70.3 cm (height); 51.9 cm (width)” (Manchester Art Gallery).
  • Signature/date/other text: signed “Annie L Robinson / 1880” lower right; “mon amie / S. Isabel Dacre” upper left; signature and text in red.
  • History:
    • 1880 – Signed and dated.
    • 1880 – Exhibited Manchester Academy of Fine Arts (Manchester Courier, 25 Feb 1880, p6).
    • 1932 – In possession of the sitter until given to Manchester Art Gallery in 1932.
    • May 1938 – Exhibited Manchester Art Gallery – Manchester in Nineteenth Century Pictures and Records (Manchester Art Gallery).
    • 2018-2019 – Exhibited Manchester Art Gallery ‘Painting Light and Hope’ exhibition, 23 Feb 2018 to 6 Jan 2019.
    • 2022 – Exhibited Tate Britain, November 2022, “Spotlights: Annie Swynnerton”.
  • Location: Manchester Art Gallery.

Miss Annie L. Robinson is gaining a position in portraiture, and gives evidence of considerable power in the “counterfeit presentment” of her sister artist, Miss Dacre.

Manchester Courier, 25 Feb 1880.

Isabel and Annie met at Manchester school of art and became life-long friends, sometimes living, traveling and working together in both Britain and on the continent. The painting stayed in Isabel’s possession until she gave it to Manchester Art Gallery in 1932, the year before her (and Annie’s) death.

Page last updated 16 Oct 2025.