The Young Mother

Artist Annie Louise Swynnerton (1844 - 1933)

Date1903 - 1905

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions53 x 33.7 cm

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery. Lane Gift, 1912.

Object number2

DescriptionAnnie Swynnerton (1844-1933) was born at Kersal, near Manchester and studied at the Manchester School of Art and then the Académie Julian in Paris. Swynnerton completed her studies by travelling for two years in Italy. During a stay in Rome she met the Manx sculptor Joseph Swynnerton, whom she married in 1883; until his death in 1910, they lived mainly in Rome. Always greatly admired by other painters, her work was bought by prominent figures in the art world. Hugh Lane met Annie Swynnerton during a visit to Rome, where the English artist was then working, in 1904. Mrs Charles Hunter, patron of Antonio Mancini and John Singer Sargent, was a mutual friend. Swynnerton, who was actively involved with the campaign for the emancipation of women, had one of her paintings presented to the Tate Gallery by John Singer Sargent. In 1906 Sir George Clausen purchased New-Risen Hope, depicting the figure of a naked child, and later presented it to the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne. John Singer Sargent bought The Oreads in 1907, a sculpturesque group of sea-nymphs, giving the painting to the Tate Gallery, London, in 1922. In addition to her allegorical paintings, Swynnerton exhibited many portraits at the Academy in the 1910s. In 1922, backed by Clausen and Sargent, Swynnerton was the first woman to be elected an Associate of the Royal Academy.

'The most powerful and accomplished woman painter of the day' Municipal Gallery of Art Illustrated Catalogue 1908.

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