What's New: May 2024
May 9, 2024
Welcome to the 110th update of the Oxford DNB, which adds thirteen new articles, containing fourteen new lives, with a special focus on women artists. They are accompanied by twelve portrait likenesses. From May 2024, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford DNB) offers biographies of 65,244 women and men who have shaped the British past, contained in 62,974 articles. 12,199 biographies include a portrait image of the subject—researched in partnership with the National Portrait Gallery, London.
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Boty [married name Goodwin], Pauline Veronica (1938–1966), artist and actress
Brownlow [married name King], Emma (1832–1905), genre painter
Canziani, Estella Louisa Michaela (1887–1964), artist, travel writer, and folklorist [see under Starr [married name Canziani], Louisa [known as Louisa Starr Canziani]]
Gillick [née Tutin], Mary Gaskell (1881–1965), sculptor and medallist
Ironside [née Acheson], Janet Mary [Janey] (1917–1979), fashion designer and teacher
Jones, Barbara Mildred (1912–1978), painter, author, and curator
Lee, Ann (bap. 1753, d. 1790), botanical artist
Mayo [married name Gainsborough], Dame Eileen Rosemary (1906–1994), artist
Meen, Margaret (bap. 1751, d. 1834), artist and botanical illustrator
Prinsep [née Pattle], Sara Monckton (1816–1887), creator and host of the Little Holland House salon
Rhead, Charlotte Leoni Antoinette (1885–1947), pottery designer
Smith, Matilda (1854–1926), botanical illustrator
Starr [married name Canziani], Louisa [known as Louisa Starr Canziani] (1845–1909), artist
Zinkeisen [married name Johnstone], Doris Clare (1897–1991), painter and costume and set designer
Introduction by Jane Simpkiss: women artists
When discussing the history of female artists, in Western Europe at least, still life and the depiction of flowers are often cited as a popular subject because they could be practiced in the home, required no access to the nude model and for both reasons, posed no threat to female morality. The same might be said for the pursuit of botany, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which was seen by some as a gentler, more feminine science. This view is not inaccurate, but it is over simplified and has the downside of presenting female artists as entirely closeted away from the action, where the real art is taking place. In many ways, it perpetuates the thinking of that time that the botanical pursuits of women were lesser to those of their ‘great’ male artistic contemporaries.
New research shows that many women were not restricted to this genre and exhibited a variety of subjects at the Royal Academy. Female artists who did produce still lives and botanical studies also found that their achievements could thrust them into the limelight rather than restricting them to the sidelines.
My entries in this update on Ann Lee, Margaret Meen, and Matilda Smith, describe three artists who are noted for their botanical illustrations and still lives. They are not household names today, and considered at face value, might be seen to fit into the category of an artistically talented women, limited by societal expectations to a gentler subject matter, on the periphery of fine art. However, this was far from the case. All three artists worked closely with men to make significant developments in their field: Ann Lee’s illustrations contributed to discussions with the eminent scientist Carl Linnaeus, Matilda Smith’s work was the backbone of Curtis’ Botanical Magazine, and Margaret Meen combined botany and decorative art to secure the patronage of Queen Charlotte.
We know that women have an equal propensity to artistic talent as men, and in our attempt to amend the record, we look back to find those individuals who can be a feminine counterpart to Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Caravaggio. In doing so, we can fall victim to the pursuit of the ‘Greats’, those who are deserving of monographs or, at least, lengthy additions to publications such as the Oxford DNB. Apart from a few exceptions, many female artists have not left behind the archival or artistic documentation needed to fully resurrect their lives or experiences in such a way.
When considering the work of women artists in history, instead of trying to fit them into the existing, often patriarchal, art historical framework of greats, we must shift our perspective and our value system. We must recognize the importance of the inclusion of women artists in resources like the Oxford DNB, even when limited information about their lives exists, because they cumulatively remind us that women, although limited and restricted in many ways, operated in the same world as their male peers and often in tandem with them. Similarly, we must remind ourselves to reconfigure what we have been conditioned to consider ‘great achievements’, and champion the historically undervalued areas of art to which women might have been restricted, recognizing their developments in science, botany, design, and so much more.
Jane Simpkiss is the curator at Compton Verney, with a special interest in the work of historic female artists. In 2021 she curated the exhibition ‘Outgrowing: Flowers and Female Artists, 1700-now’ at Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum.
May 2024: summary of new articles
Born in Norfolk, the artist and botanical illustrator Margaret Meen (bap. 1751, d. 1834) travelled to London in 1770 to find work as a drawing instructor. By 1778, she had exhibited several watercolors and drawings at the Royal Academy of Art. Equally skilled at depicting flowers in decorative and scientific illustrations, she gained royal patronage in the court of Queen Charlotte, wife of George III, where she taught Princess Elizabeth and the queen herself.
The talents of Ann Lee (bap. 1753, d. 1790) , another exceptional botanical artist, were encouraged from an early age at the vineyard nursery in Hammersmith that her father had co-founded. Although Lee produced many exquisite paintings, some of which were used by renowned botanical scholars for the classification of exotic specimens, none was published during her lifetime, which explains in part why she is not more widely known.
Born in Calcutta, India, the creator and host of the Little Holland House salon, Sara Monckton Prinsep (1816–1887) , moved in 1850 to London, where she conceived the Sunday afternoon gatherings with her sisters and the artist George Frederic Watts. Attended by Tennyson, Carlyle, and Thackeray, among others, the salon provided a fashionable support network in which artists and writers mingled with potential patrons. Scholars have recently characterized the gatherings as the ‘spiritual ancestor’ of Bloomsbury.
Although genre painter Emma Brownlow (1832–1905) , born in London, is believed not to have been formally trained, from early in her career she demonstrated considerable aptitude, sensitivity, and a keen interest in social concerns. Painting mostly with oils, she is perhaps best known for a set of four pieces depicting aspects of life at the Foundling Hospital, where her father, a foundling himself, had risen to become its leading administrator.
Women had limited opportunities for art training in the mid-nineteenth century, but the artist Louisa Starr Canziani (1845–1909) , born in London, earned a place at the Royal Academy Schools by signing her submitted artwork ‘L.Starr’. Her gender was revealed only after she had been admitted. A versatile painter specializing in portraiture, she regularly appeared at the Royal Academy summer exhibition and was favorably received by the critical press. She supported women’s rights throughout her career.
Once her family had returned to England from Bombay, India, where she was born, the botanical illustrator Matilda Smith (1854–1926) received technical instruction from Joseph Hooker, her second cousin and the editor of Curtis’s Botanical Magazine. Her skill was evident immediately. Throughout her career she contributed illustrations to several leading publications including the Botanical Magazine, where her analytical drawings earned praise from her contemporaries. In 1916 she was elected the first female president of the Kew Guild.
A regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy until the 1960s, the sculptor and medallist Mary Gaskell Gillick (1881–1965) gained a reputation as a talented modeller known for her ability to convey a likeness, even of someone she had never seen. She was appointed OBE in 1953 for her work in struck medals, commissioned mostly by institutions and societies, as well as larger portrait medallions and plaques for architectural settings. Her most famous work was her design for the portrait for the first coinage of Queen Elizabeth II in 1952.
The pottery designer Charlotte Leoni Antoinette Rhead (1885–1947) , born in Staffordshire, is best known for creating utilitarian patterns, as distinct from more expensive ornamental wares, that appealed to a variety of consumers and collectors, especially during the years of the great depression. Acknowledged as much for her technical innovation as her aesthetic judgement, she was the focus of a television documentary series in the 1980s that renewed popular interest in her work.
The artist, travel writer, and folklorist, Estella Louisa Michaela Canziani (1887–1964) , daughter of Louisa Starr Canziani, trained as an artist in London and began exhibiting in 1905. Her most famous work, The Piper of Dreams, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1915, was widely reproduced in the First World War. Her interest in the folk art and costumes of Italy led to her taking a leading role in the Folklore Society.
Doris Clare Zinkeisen (1897–1991) , born in Argyll and Bute, was an acclaimed designer of film and theatrical sets and costumes, largely during the interwar years. Her artistic versatility extended to writing and oil painting, in which she experimented with a range of techniques and contemporary styles. Her extroversion belied a seriousness and formidable work ethic that propelled her career across commercial and artistic enterprises, although her work is relatively obscure today.
Born in Norfolk, the artist Dame Eileen Rosemary Mayo (1906–1994) established a career as an illustrator, painter, and printmaker in London in the 1930s. Her works were exhibited at the Royal Academy and extensively elsewhere. She also undertook commercial commissions to support herself, moving seamlessly between the fine and applied arts. She regarded an artist as someone who made things as fittingly as possible, arguing that divisions between fine art and other art forms was artificial.
While studying mural decoration at the Royal College of Art, the painter, author, and curator Barbara Mildred Jones (1912–1978) , born in Croydon, developed a fascination with artefacts representative of ordinary life. For Jones, the objects of the everyday—canal boats and wax figures, food and drink packaging, tattoos—had rich and worthwhile aesthetic qualities and characteristics, which she investigated through her murals, publications, and exhibitions.
The fashion designer and teacher Janet Mary [Janey] Ironside (1917–1979) , born in India, enrolled in a dress course at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, London and after the Second World War established a dressmaking business in South Kensington. In 1956 she was appointed professor of fashion at the Royal College of Art, where she advocated for British design and young talent, capturing the mood of 1960s ‘swinging London’.
Born in London, the artist and actress Pauline Veronica Boty (1938–1966) lived only until the age of twenty-eight, but she is remembered today for her outsize influence on the British pop art movement during the mid-twentieth century, of which she was a founding member. Following her death Boty was all but forgotten, but recent publications and retrospectives describe her as a uniquely powerful, critical, and passionate presence within the pop art painting world.
In addition to the new articles, four likenesses have been added to existing articles on women in the art world: the artists’ model Betty May (1894-1980) , the writer on art, Mary Philadelphia Merrifield (1804-1889) , the artists’ model, Lilian Shelley (1892-c.1934) , and the artist, Anna Zinkeisen (1901-1976) .
The Oxford DNB is updated regularly throughout the year, giving you access to the most up-to-date and accurate information available. Nearly all public libraries in England, Scotland, and Wales—and all in Northern Ireland—subscribe to the Oxford DNB. This means you can access tens of thousands of biographies, free, via your local library—anywhere, anytime. Full access to all biographies is also available by individual subscription.
Discover a full list of entries added this year.