Anna Zinkeisen

Who was Anna Zinkeisen?

Anna Katrina Zinkeisen was a Scottish painter and artist.

Zinkeisen was born in Kilcreggan, the daughter of Clare Bolton-Charles and Victor Zinkeisen, a timber merchant. The family moved to Middlesex in 1909, where Anna and her sister Doris, attended the Harrow School of Art before they both won scholarships to the Royal Academy Schools. Anna studied sculpture at the Royal Academy Schools between 1916 and 1921. She received a commission for some plaques from the Wedgwood company and although these designs were awarded a silver medal at the Exposition des Art Decoratifs in Paris in 1925, Zinkeisen decided to specialise in portrait painting and mural work. In 1935, Anna and Doris Zinkeisen were commissioned by John Brown and Company Shipbuilders of Clydebank to paint murals on the ocean liner RMS Queen Mary. Their work can still be seen, in the Verandah Grill room, on the ship now permanently moored in Long Beach, California. At this time Anna was also working on a number of illustrations for books and magazine covers. In 1940 both sisters also contributed murals to the liner RMS Queen Elizabeth.

During World War II, Anna Zinkeisen worked as a Medical Artist and nursing auxiliary in the Order of St John at St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington. She made pathological drawings of war injuries for the Royal College of Surgeons. Her self-portrait and her painting of plastic surgeon Sir Archibald McIndoe are both exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery.