Anna Airy

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Anna Airy: Aircraft production in Hendon

Anna Airy (born June 6, 1882 in Greenwich , London , United Kingdom ; † October 23, 1964 ) was a British oil painter , pastel artist and etcher . She is considered to be the first woman to work as a war painter during the First World War .

Life

Airy was born in Greenwich as the daughter of the engineer Wilfrid Airy and his wife Anna Airy, née Listing. According to speculation, it was named after her mother, who died two weeks after Airy's birth. Airy was raised by her two unmarried paternal aunts, Christael and Annot, in the home of her grandfather, Sir George Biddell Airy , a retired astronomer Royal . She inherited the family house in Playford after her father's death in 1925 and lived there until her death in 1964.

In 1908 she met the painter and etcher Geoffrey Buckingham Pocock, whom she married in 1916. They shared a studio at 5 Parkhill Road Studios in Haverstock Hill and some time later they moved to Playford together.

Artistic career

education

Airy's family background consisted of many academics and artists. Her deceased paternal grandmother, Richarda Airy, and her aunts also devoted themselves to contemporary art . Anna Airy's artistic talent was also discovered and promoted early on. In 1899 she studied from the age of 17 at the same time as William Orpen and Augustus John for four years at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. She was trained as a professional painter under the direction of Henry Tonks , Fred Brown and Philip Wilson Steer . She was considered an excellent student and won the Slade School Scholarship in 1902, the Melville Nettleship Prize in 1901, 1902 and 1903, as well as other prizes in various other categories. Airy's artistic focus was on painting landscapes, flowers and people. She mainly worked with oil paints, watercolors and chalk.

First World War

Shop for Machining 15-inch Shells- Singer Manufacturing Company, Clydebank, Glasgow

In the 20th century, women were not encouraged to see the war first hand. So it became difficult for them to reproduce the brutality prevailing on the fronts, like their male colleagues, in their own artistic representation. They were only able to process the impressions they got from their work in ammunition factories, medical facilities and the like. Ä. won. The forgotten social, industrial and human backgrounds were thematized on an artistic level. However, these works were not officially recognized as war painting.

As the First World War slowly came to an end, in 1918 Airy was the first woman to be commissioned by the Munitions Committee of the Imperial War Museum to artistically depict the great expense of industrial war effort on five large oil paintings: The Shell forge at the National Projectile Factory in Hackney Marshes, Gun Forge near Manchester , The Aircraft Assembly Shop at Armstrong-Whitworth, Hendon and The Singer Factory in Glasgow , The 'L' Press. Forging the Jacket of an 18-inch Gun- Armstrong-Whitworth Works, Openshaw. Commissions from the British War Memorial Committee, the Imperial War Museum Committee and the Women's Work Committee also followed.

Their professional activity required working under the most difficult conditions. Because of the heat in a forge, her shoes melted off her feet while she was painting A Shell Forge at a National Projectile Factory, Hackney Marshes, London . If Airy's deadlines were not met, there were consequences. A picture she had painted, showing the girl leaving an ammunition plant, was rejected by the Ministry of Information's British War Memorials Committee, which commissioned it, and later destroyed by Airy himself.

The five paintings already mentioned, which Airy also exhibited, made an impressive impression. Many were surprised that behind these massive works of art there was a woman famous for painting flowers.

post war period

At the beginning of the Second World War , she applied for the War Artists Advisory Committee, but her candidacy was rejected. The Hall of Lincoln's Inn, 1944 During Restoration from Enemy Action, was the only wartime image known to have been exhibited at the 1945 Royal Academy.

After the war she devoted her talent to detail-oriented, landscape painting, mainly using pens and watercolors. Her love for botany , which inspired her artistic career from the very beginning, came to the fore again.

She continued to exhibit her work at the Royal Academy. In 1945 she was elected as the first female president of the Ipswich Art Club and held that post until her death in 1964.

Exhibitions

Her first exhibition took place in 1905 at the Royal Academy of Arts . These were continued until 1956. Their exhibitions comprised a total of around 80 works. As early as 1907, Airy was considered one of the most renowned and talented female painters of her time.

She was a member of many artistic associations. In 1906 she became a member of the Pastel Society. She also joined the Royal Society of Painters and Etchers in 1908. It also became part of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (1909), Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colors (1918), and Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts (1952). Airy is also the author of The Art of Pastel (1930) and Making a Start in Art (1951).

Airy's works can now be seen in the British Museum , Victoria and Albert Museum and the Imperial War Museum .

Works (selection)

Painting from the First World War

  • A Shell Forge at a National Projectile Factory, Hackney Marshes, London

  • Women Working in a Gas Retort House- South Metropolitan Gas Company, London

  • The 'L' Press. Forging the Jacket of an 18-inch Gun- Armstrong-Whitworth Works, Openshaw

literature

  • Sara Gray: The Dictionary of British Women Artists (Ed .: Sara Gray). Lutterworth Press, Michigan, ISBN 978-0-71883-0847 , pp. 13-14.

Web links

Commons : Anna Airy  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Women at war: The female British artists who were written out of history , Independent
  2. ↑ a b c d Anna AIRY (Greenwich 1882 - Playford 1964) - Boon Gallery - Artist Detail. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on April 2, 2018 ; accessed on February 3, 2018 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.boongallery.be
  3. ^ KJ Goward: Founding of Orwell Park Observatory . Institute of Astronomy. 2006. Archived from the original on November 15, 2007. Retrieved on December 9, 2017.
  4. ↑ a b Anna Airy. Retrieved February 17, 2018 (American English).
  5. ↑ a b c Airy, Anna (1882–1964) - Dictionary definition of Airy, Anna (1882–1964) | Encyclopedia.com: FREE online dictionary. Retrieved February 17, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Stephen Bury: Benezit dictionary of British graphic artists and illustrators . New York, NY, ISBN 0-19-992305-1 .
  7. ^ A b Sara Gray: The Dictionary of British Women Artists . Ed .: Sara Gray. Lutterworth Press, Michigan 2009, ISBN 978-0-7188-3084-7 , pp. 13-14 .
  8. ^ Art and Daily Life in World War Two. Retrieved February 17, 2018 (UK English).
  9. ^ A Shell Forge at a National Projectile Factory, Hackney Marshes, London, 1918 | Imperial War Museum. Retrieved February 17, 2018 .
  10. ↑ a b Anna AIRY (Greenwich 1882 - Playford 1964) - Ongpin Fine Art - Artist Detail. Retrieved February 17, 2018 .
  11. ^ Judith Collins: 20th century painters and sculptors . Antique Collectors' Club, Woodbridge, Suffolk 1990, ISBN 1-85149-106-6 .
personal data
SURNAME Airy, Anna
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British oil painter, pastel artist and etcher
DATE OF BIRTH June 6, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Greenwich , London , United Kingdom
DATE OF DEATH October 23, 1964
Place of death Greenwich , London , United Kingdom