ZINKEISEN, Anna Katrina

1901 - 1976

Anna Zinkeisen

Anna Katrina Zinkeisen, was born at Kilcreggan, Dumbartonshire on 29 August 1901, daughter of Victor Zinkeisen (1863-1929), a timber merchant, and his wife Clare née Bolton-Charles and in 1901 the family moved to Middlesex. Anna and her sister Doris Clare Zinkeisen, were educated by private tutors and then attended Harrow School of Art before they both won scholarships to the Royal Academy Schools where she studied sculpture 1916-1921, winning several medals, studying under Charles Sims, Sir George Clausen and Glyn Philpot. Anna received a commission for some plaques from the Wedgwood company and, although her designs were awarded a silver medal at the Exposition des Art Decoratifs in Paris in 1925, she decided to specialise in portrait painting and mural work. In 1935, Anna and her sister Doris, were commissioned by John Brown and Company, shipbuilders of Clydebank, to paint the murals in the Verandah Grill of the famous ocean liner the RMS Queen Mary. Their work can still be seen on the ship, now permanently moored in Long Beach, California and Anna also painted murals for the liner Queen Elizabeth. In 1941, during World War II, the Zinkeisen sisters were both employed as war artists for the North West Europe Commission of the Joint War Organisation of the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St John, at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, where they and made pathological drawings of war injuries for the Royal College of Surgeons. Portrait, figure, landscape and mural painter, artist and book illustrator she exhibited widely including at the Royal Academy 1921-1964; Royal Society of British Artists; Royal Hiberian Academy; Royal Institute of Oil Painters; Society of Women Artists; Royal Scottish Academy; Redfern Gallery and in the provinces and abroad. Her painting of plastic surgeon Sir Archibald Hector McIndoe is exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery (London) as is her self-portrait. She married at Marylebone, London on 25 July 1928, Guy Robert Nelson Heseltine (1897-1967) and they lived at Looms Cottage, Burgh, Woodbridge in Suffolk. Anna Katrina Zinkeisen was of Looms Cottage, Burgh, when she died at Kensington, London on 23 September 1976. She signed her works 'A. K. Zinkeisen'. Kelleway, Philip - 'Highly Desirable: The Zinkeisen Sisters and Their Legacy'. Leiston Press (2008).

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 8 St Andrew's Place, Regent's Park, London, NW 1
1940 410 Royal Vauxhall
from 14 Alexander Place, London NW 7
1956 265 Marshal of the Royal Air Force, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh
1958 336 The Baby
488 Baby’s Head
1964 399 ‘Defend O Lord, This thy Child’




Works by This Artist