Lot 108: AR Anna Airy, RI, ROI, RP, RE, PS, GI (British, 1882-1964) Young April

Anna Airy, RI, ROI, RP, RE, PS, GI (British, 1882-1964)
Young April
signed 'A. Airy' (lower right)
oil on canvas
88.9 x 76.2cm (35 x 30in).

Footnotes

• Provenance
  The artist and thence by descent.
  Anon. sale, Bonhams, London, 20 October 1994, lot 112.
  Private collection, UK (acquired from the above sale).
  
  Exhibited
  Ipswich, Ipswich Art Club, Retrospective loan exhibition Oils, Watercolours, Pastels, Etchings, Drawings by Anna Airy RI, ROI, RE, 20 April - 16 June 1985, no. 42.
  
  Anna Airy was born in 1882 in Greenwich. She grew up in an artistic household where she was encouraged to paint and draw from an early age. In 1899, when Airy was seventeen, she underwent formal training at the Slade School. The school offered women the same opportunities as men and she was guided by Henry Tonks and Philip Wilson Steer. She was awarded a number of prestigious prizes over formidable contemporaries such as Augustus and Gwen John, William Orpen, Ambrose McEvoy and William Rothenstein.
  
  The present lot first came to the market in 1994, prior to which it was passed through the artist's family. According to the original catalogue entry the work was extensively exhibited, being shown at Sheffield and Southport, 1934; Liverpool, 1935; Bradford and Huddersfield, 1936; Doncaster, 1937; Glasgow and the Art Institute at Paisley, 1938; Bournemouth and Ipswich, 1939; Usher Art Gallery, Lincoln, 1944, R.B.A. Galleries, Suffolk Street, 1952 and Ipswich Art Club, 1985.