© Royal Holloway, University of London
17 rooms in Historic and Early Modern British Art
This display celebrates Annie Swynnerton's trailblazing work as a painter and campaigner for women's rights
Swynnerton (1844–1933) initially studied in her home city at the Manchester School of Art. But she became frustrated by the limited curriculum it offered. Women students were prevented from working from nude models. She went on to study at the more progressive Académie Julian in Paris (1878–9). Returning to the UK, she co-founded the Manchester Society of Women Painters in 1879.
Swynnerton was also involved with the fight for women’s political rights, joining the Manchester Society of Women’s Suffrage in 1880. She lived to see women gain the vote on the same terms as men in 1928. Her sitters and supporters included leading figures in the women’s suffrage movement.
Working in various genres, Swynnerton combined aspects of different artistic styles. But her work always kept its own distinct character. Artists as diverse as mythological painter Edward Burne-Jones and society portraitist John Singer Sargent admired it. She exhibited with various galleries and societies. During her lifetime, her work entered public collections around the world.
In 1922, Swynnerton was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts. She was the first woman member since its founding in 1768. Laura Knight (1877–1970) followed Swynnerton into this bastion of the British art establishment. She paid tribute to Swynnerton: ‘Any woman reaching the heights in the fine arts had been almost unknown until Mrs Swynnerton came and broke down the barriers of prejudice.’
Annie Louisa Swynnerton, Oreads exhibited 1907
This work probably illustrates a scene in the ancient Greek poem ‘Dionysiaca’. Zeus, god of the sky, has flooded the earth. The oreads (mountain spirits) are forced to seek safety on higher ground. A rainbow suggests the storm is ending, although it is unclear if the figure on the lower right will survive. In 1922 Annie Swynnerton became the first woman to be elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in over 150 years. Swynnerton was also involved with the fight for women’s rights. Some of her sitters and supporters were leading figures in the women’s suffrage movement.
Gallery label, October 2020
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artworks in Annie Swynnerton
Annie Louisa Swynnerton, New Risen Hope 1904
Swynnerton was a maverick figure in the London exhibitions of the 1890s. She aimed at an art of serious meaning and visual richness which showed a woman's mind and eye at work. Her subjects, rendered robustly and vividly, engage the viewer directly. Her work has an immediacy that was thrilling to admirers and irksome to detractors, as both groups recognised Swynnerton's independence from artistic conventions.
Gallery label, February 2010
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Annie Louisa Swynnerton, The Convalescent c.1887
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Annie Louisa Swynnerton, Dame Millicent Fawcett, G.B.E., LL.D. c.1889–1920
In 1922 Annie Swynnerton became the first woman to be elected member of the Royal Academy of Arts since its founding in 1768. She was a passionate campaigner for women’s suffrage and painted portraits of several of the movement's leading figures.
Millicent Garrett Fawcett, leader of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, was instrumental in gaining British women over 30 the vote in 1918. She was present in Parliament in 1928 to see the passing of the act that granted women the same voting rights as men.
Gallery label, January 2018
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Annie Louisa Swynnerton, Count Zubov c.1908–9
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John Singer Sargent, Val d’Aosta c.1908–10
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Annie Louisa Swynnerton, Miss Elizabeth Williamson on a Pony 1906
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Annie Louisa Swynnerton, Portrait of Miss Elizabeth Williamson 1906
Portrait of Miss Elizabeth Williamson 1906 is a small signed portrait in oil on canvas, showing the head and shoulders of a young girl by Annie Louise Swynnerton. She wears a high-necked thick blue sweater painted with thick brushstrokes. Her blonde should-length hair is loose and her cheeks flushed. She turns to the viewer with an open, carefree smile. The blue of the jumper is picked out in the sitter’s pale blue eyes and the yellow of hair in her eyebrows and facial highlights. Despite this naturalism of this painting, the use of reds, yellows and the blues create a bright, decorative effect. The work is a lively study for the life-size equestrian portrait Miss Elizabeth Williamson on a Pony 1907 (Tate N05019), which was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1934, and was presented to Tate by Mrs F. Howard in 1939, six years after Swynnerton’s death. Prior to entering Tate’s collection, this study was owned by the art historian Susan Thomson, an expert on Swynnerton.
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