Girls Head

Anna Katrina Zinkeisen was born in Kilcreggan, Scotland, the daughter of a timber merchant. The family moved to Middlesex in 1909 where she and her sister Doris attended the Harrow School of Art before they both won scholarships to the Royal Academy Schools. She studied sculpture at the Royal Academy Schools between 1916 and 1921 and in 1925 she received a commission to design ceramic plaques for Wedgwood which were to win her a silver medal at the Exposition des Art Decoratifs in Paris. In spite of this success she decided to give up sculpture in favour of portrait painting and mural work. In 1935, Anna and Doris were commissioned by John Brown & Company, the Clydebank shipbuilders, to paint murals for the Verandah Grill room of the ocean liner Queen Mary. In 1940 they contributed another series of murals for the liner Queen Elizabeth. Anna also worked at a book and magazine illustrator and designed posters for London Transport. During World War II she worked as a Medical Artist and nursing auxiliary at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington and made series of drawings of war injuries for the Royal College of Surgeons. As a portrait painter she was well known for tradition portraits of male sitters but it was in her portraits of glamorous society and theatrical women that she excelled and made her name. She exhibited at the Royal Academy, Royal Scottish Academy, Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Paris Salon and elsewhere. Works by her are in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, Imperial War Museum, Royal Air Force Museum and in many other public collections