Anna Zinkeisen

Anna Katrina Zinkeisen (29 August 1901 – 23 September 1976) (married Heseltine) was a Scottish painter and artist.

Anna Zinkeisen
Self-portrait of Anna Zinkeisen, ca. 1944
Born(1901-08-29)29 August 1901
Kilcreggan
Died23 September 1976(1976-09-23) (aged 75)
London
NationalityBritish
Education
Known forPainting
Spouse(s)Guy Heseltine

Biography
Archibald McIndoe, Consultant in Plastic Surgery to the Royal Air Force, operating at the Queen Victoria Plastic and Jaw Injury centre, East Grinstead by Anna Zinkeisen, 1944

Zinkeisen was born in Kilcreggan, the daughter of Clare Bolton-Charles and Victor Zinkeisen, a timber merchant. The family moved to Middlesex in 1909. Anna and her sister Doris were privately educated at home before they attended the Harrow School of Art from where they both won scholarships to the Royal Academy Schools.[1] Anna studied sculpture at the Royal Academy Schools between 1916 and 1921, winning silver and bronze medals, and first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1919.[2] She received a commission for some plaques from the Wedgwood company and although these designs were awarded a silver medal at the Exposition des Art Decoratifs in Paris in 1925, Zinkeisen decided to specialise in portrait painting and mural work.

In 1935, Anna and Doris Zinkeisen were commissioned by the Clydebank shipbuilders John Brown and Company to paint murals on the ocean liner RMS Queen Mary.[3] Their work can still be seen, in the Verandah Grill room, on the ship now permanently moored in Long Beach, California.[4] At this time Anna was also working on a number of illustrations for books and magazine covers as well as designing posters, such as Merry-go-round and Motor Cyle and Cycle Show, Olympia 5–10 November 1935 for London Transport.[5][6] In 1940 both sisters also contributed murals to the liner RMS Queen Elizabeth.

During World War II, Anna Zinkeisen worked as a Medical Artist and nursing auxiliary in the Order of St John at St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington.[3] After completing a day's shift working on a ward as a casualty nurse, Zinkeisen would use a disused operating theatre as her studio to work on her paintings.[7] During the conflict she painted scenes in the hospital and depictions of air-raid victims.[2] She also made pathological drawings of war injuries for the Royal College of Surgeons.[8] Her self-portrait and her painting of the plastic surgeon Sir Archibald McIndoe are both exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery (London).[9][10] Among her other, later, portrait subjects were HRH Prince Philip, Sir Alexander Fleming and Lord Beaverbrook.[2] Towards the end of the war London Underground commissioned Zinkeisen to produce a poster anticipating the end of the conflict. Her design showed a woman leading a family away from the war to sunlit fields over a quote from Winston Churchill.[11]

In 1944, Anna and Doris Zinkeisen were commissioned by United Steel Companies (USC) to produce twelve paintings which were reproduced in the trade and technical press in Britain, Canada, Australia and South Africa. The images were subsequently collated in a book, This Present Age, published in 1946.[12][3] Her work was also part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1948 Summer Olympics.[13]

Anna Zinkeisen painted a mural, showing birds of the Bible (c. 1967), in memory of her husband Col. Guy Heseltine in St Botolph's church, Burgh, Suffolk.[14]

References
  1. Britta C.Dwyer. "The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women - The Zinkeisen sisters". Edinburgh University Press. Archived from the original on 7 August 2007. Retrieved 30 October 2013.
  2. Peter J.M. McEwan (1994). The Dictionary of Scottish Art and Architecture. Antique Collectors' Club. ISBN 1-85149-134-1.
  3. Alicia Foster (25 May 2020). "Sister art: Doris and Anna Zinkeisen". Art UK. Retrieved 17 July 2020.
  4. Frances Spalding (1990). 20th Century Painters and Sculptors. Antique Collectors' Club. ISBN 1-85149-106-6.
  5. Ruth Artmonsky (2012). Designing Women: Women Working in Advertising and Publicity from the 1920s to the 1960s. Artmonsky Arts. ISBN 978-0-9551994-9-3., pp.107-113.
  6. "Poster Girls exhibition showcases forgotten design heroines". BBC News. 13 October 2017. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
  7. Juliet Gardiner (2004). Wartime, Britain 1939-1945. Review/Headline Book Publishing. ISBN 0-7553-1028-4.
  8. Kathleen Palmer (2011). Women War Artists. Tate Publishing/Imperial War Museum. ISBN 978-1-85437-989-4.
  9. "Anna Zinkeisen". National Portrait Gallery, London.
  10. "Sir Archibald Hector McIndoe". National Portrait Gallery, London.
  11. David Bownes (2018). Poster Girls. london transport museum. ISBN 978-1-871829-28-0.
  12. Alice Strang (2017). A New Era: Scottish Modern Art 1900 - 1950. National Galleries of Scotland. ISBN 9781911054160.
  13. "Anna Zinkeisen". Olympedia. Retrieved 22 August 2020.
  14. Historic England. "CHURCH OF ST BOTOLPH (1197947)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 30 March 2014.

Further reading
  • Kelleway, Philip (2008). Highly Desirable: The Zinkeisen Sisters and Their Legacy. Leiston Press. ISBN 978-0-9559673-4-4.
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