The Life Force

This wonderful composition by Anna Zinkeisen depicts a scene reminiscent of a bacchanal, though there is no specific mythological reference. Draped and nude figures leap across the canvas, some astride white horses, with putti, geese and swans as well as animals resembling African antelopes. The dream-like setting of purple-hued clouds is illuminated by a rainbow-like ray of light, arcs of green and gold. The most central female figure trails a cloak behind her, exquisitely detailed with colourful flowers. The scene is brimming with joy and abandon, bursting with life and full of dynamic movement.

The long arms thrown back and wide by the figures and the graceful leaping of the the horses is echoes Zinkeisen's Merry-go-Round posters for the London Underground as well as her murals for the Morning Room ceiling in Russell-Cotes House in Bournemouth and the panels in the Ballroom of RMS Queen Mary.

Anna Zinkeisen

Anna Zinkeisen was born at Kilcreggan, Dumbartonshire on 29 August 1901, the daughter of Victor Zinkeisen, a timber merchant, and his wife Clare. In 1901 the family moved to Middlesex. Anna and her sister Doris attended Harrow School of Art before they both won scholarships to the Royal Academy Schools, where Anna studied sculpture from 1916-1921, winning several medals. She 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 Zinkeisen were commissioned by John Brown & Co. (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. They also painted murals for the 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. After completing shift work on the wards as a casualty nurse, Zinkeisen would use a disused operating theatre as a studio to work on her paintings. She painted scenes in the hospital and depicted air-raid victims as well as pathological drawings of war injuries for the Royal College of Surgeons. Towards the end of the war Zinkeisen was commissioned by the London Underground to produce a poster anticipating the end of the conflict.

Artist of portrait, figure, landscape and murals and book illustrator she exhibited widely including at the Royal Academy, 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 church in London in 1928, a Mr Guy Robert Nelson Heseltine (1897-1967) and they lived at Looms Cottage, Burgh, Woodbridge in Suffolk. Around 1967 she painted a mural in memory of her husband in St Botolph's church in Suffolk, showing the birds of the Bible.

Her works can be found in museums across the country. Zinkeisen died in Kensington, London on 23 September 1976.