institutional
Anna Zinkeisen
(1901 - 1976)
All the Colours of the Rainbow, 1942
Private Collection
Anna Zinkeisen (1901 - 1976)
Size:
Height – 40.6cm
Width – 56cm
Provenance: ICI Corporate Collection until 2002
This painting was commissioned by ICI to commemorate the introduction of the colour monstrol blue by the company in the mid 1930s. The painting is typical of Zinkeisen’s pre-war style, balancing successfully her own figurative tendencies and strong sense of design, along with the presiding spirit of Surrealism. The picture dates to the period when Anna, with her sister Doris, painted murals for the liner Queen Mary.
Anna Zinkeisen studied drawing and anatomy before winning
a scholarship to the Royal Academy Schools in 1916 to study
sculpture ‘ exhibiting at the RA in 1919 and winning the
Landseer Award in 1920 and 1921.
On leaving the RA, she worked with her sister Doris on
murals for the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth liners and
produced notable portraits. She also provided illustrations for
several books, including Sophy Cassmajor by Margery Sharp,
published in 1934.
While volunteering as a nurse at St. Mary’s Hospital during
the Second World War, Zinkeisen made pathological drawings of
war injuries for the Royal College of Surgeons. She was awarded
RDI in 1940. In her self-portrait of 1944 (held in the NPG),
clutching a bundle of paint brushes and wearing the bracelet of
the St John’s Ambulance Brigade, for which she was volunteering,
her gaze leaves the viewer in no doubt as to her professional status.
