FINLAY, Anne

1898 - 1963

Anne Bannatyne Finlay was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on 21 April 1898, daughter of Alexander Bannatyne Finlay (21 April 1854-1922), a sheep farmer, and his wife Margaret F. A. Finlay, and in 1901 they were visitors at Newton House, Nairn, Scotland, the home of widow Jessie B. Thompson, together with Anne's siblings, Ida Elizabeth Charlotte 4 and Robert W. 1. Anne spent her early years in Edinburgh and attended a school in Manor Place in the city, where she studied French and afterwards studied drawing and painting at Edinburgh College of Art from 1917. Finlay, or ‘Spook’ as she was known, in 1922 moved to Hampstead, London, supporting herself by teaching French, Art, and Music at nearby private schools. She painted portraits of friends and family and invited nieces and nephews to sit for her as models. She regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy 1932-1963; the Scottish Royal Academy also at New Gallery, Edinburgh in 1935, Lever Art Gallery, Liverpool in 1943 and, at the Aberdeen Art Gallery in 1944, exhibited 'Young Card Players'. In 1939, a commercial artist, living at Scotland Hall Farm, Stoke-By-Nayland, Suffolk, the home of farmer Frank Riddlestone and his wife and during the war, Finlay painted more landscapes, as she led a wandering life settling at times in different rural places after which she returned to London to work as Registrar of the City & Guilds of London Art School, Kennington. Anne's personal life included affairs with painters James McBey (1883-1959) and Ernest Proctor (1886-1935) and a relationship with Philip Connard (1875-1958) and lived with Connard in Richmond, Surrey. Anne Bannatyne Finlay was of 155 Sheen Road, Richmond when she died at the Marie Curie Hospital, 66 Fitzjohns Avenue, London N.W.3 on 17 October 1963.

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Works by This Artist