Doris Zinkeisen
Doris Zinkeisen | |
---|---|
Badingham, Suffolk , England | |
Known for | Stage design, Costume design, Painting, Commercial art |
Doris Clare Zinkeisen (31 July 1897 – 3 January 1991)[1] was a Scottish theatrical stage and costume designer, painter, commercial artist, and writer. She was best known for her work in theatrical design.
Early life
Doris Zinkeisen was born in Clynder House in
Career
Zinkeisen shared a studio in London with her sister during the 1920s and 1930s from where she embarked on her career as a painter, commercial artist, and theatrical designer.[6]
Painting and commercial art
Zinkeisen's realist style made her popular as a portraitist and she became a well-known society painter[8][3][9] The subject matter of her paintings, society portraiture, equestrian portraiture, and scenes from the parks of London and Paris reflect the lifestyle of the upper class at the time. An early success was her 1925 portrait of the actor Elsa Lanchester.[10]
She also worked widely in other media as an illustrator and commercial artist including producing advertising posters for several British mainline railway companies and murals for the RMS Queen Mary.[6][11][12] A 1939 poster for the London Underground, At the Theatre, was printed but never issued due to the start of World War II.[13]
In 1944, Doris and her sister Anna were commissioned by United Steel Companies (USC) to produce twelve paintings that were reproduced in the trade and technical press in Britain, Canada, Australia and South Africa. The images were subsequently collated in a book, This Present Age, published in 1946.[14][10]
Railway posters
Zinkeisen produced a number of posters for London and North Eastern Railway (LNER), Southern Railway (SR), and the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) in the 1930s. The posters often featured historical themes and included:
- Berwick-upon-Tweed by LNER (1930) which shows
- Cambridge it's Quicker by Rail (1930) for LNER that shows Queen Elizabeth I visiting Queens College in 1564,[16]
- Durham by LNER (1932) based on the legend of the dun cow shows pilgrims following a milkmaid with Durham Cathedral in the background,[17]
- To York – Dick Turpin's Ride (1934) for LNER showing the eighteenth-century highwayman, Dick Turpin riding to York on his horse Black Bess with York Minster in the background,[18]
- Western Highlands – Rob Roy (1934) for LNER/LMS showing Rob Roy standing on a mountain,[19]
- Scarborough, In Grandmother's Day (1935) for LNER showing people in Scarborough on the spa bandstand in Victorian dress, with the castle and sea in the background,[20]
- Coronation (1937) for LNER showing the Coronation, the locomotive built by Timothy Hackworth in 1831 in honour of the coronation of King William IV,[21]
- What to see from the windows of the Atlantic Coast Express (1937), a guidebook produced for SR with illustrations,[22]
- The Coronation (1937) with the text "designed by Sir King George VI. Kings Cross – Edinburgh in 6 hours" showing the Coronation passing through the countryside,[23]
- Captain Cook at Whitby (c. 1937) for LNER showing Captain Cook and two Royal Navy officers in Whitby harbour with St Mary's Church and Whitby Abbey in the background. The poster's text says "His voyages round the world for making new discoveries were undertaken in the Endeavour in 1768 and the Resolution in 1772. Both these ships were built at Whitby. It's quicker by rail. London and North Eastern Railway."[24]
- Scotland by East Coast Route – LNER with the text "The articles of union between england & scotland were secretly signed in a cellar in high Street edinburgh 1706".[25]
RMS Queen Mary
In 1935,
Exhibitions and awards
Zinkeisen exhibited at the
Stage and costume design
Zinkeisen was a successful stage and costume designer for plays and films.[9] Despite her success as a painter and commercial artist she was best known as a theatrical designer.[6]
She started to work in stage design as soon as she completed her studies at the Royal Academy.[5] Her first job was working for the actor-manager Nigel Playfair.[5] Playfair wanted Zinkeisen to sing in the productions, but Zinkeisen insisted on remaining behind the scenes.[5] One of the first plays she worked on was Clifford Bax and Playfair's 1923 adaptation of The Insect Play by Karel and Josef Čapek.[6][27] The play ran for 42 performances in May and June 1923 at the Regent Theatre in London.[28] Claude Rains played three roles and the production was the professional debut for John Gielgud. Rains described Zinkeisen as "a stunning women".[28]
Zinkeisen became the chief stage and costume designer for Charles B. Cochran's popular London revues.[6] At some point she either inherited from Cochran or was gifted by him two paintings by Édouard Vuillard, namely the side panels of The Grand Teddy tea-rooms paintings. This provenance was documented in season 3, episode 1 of Fake or Fortune?. Cochran described Zinkeisen's work in an article published in The Studio magazine in 1927.[6]
Miss Doris Zinkeisen seems to me to follow the best traditions of English theatrical decoration... She can now create costumes for all moods and times, and capture with equal facility the acid fervour of puritanism or the sweet lyricism of a faun... this young decorator, at her early age is, in my opinion, in the front rank of British designers.
— Charles B. Cochran, The Studio (1927)
In 1928, Zinkeisen designed the costumes for
Zinkeisen was a costume designer on a number of
World War II, nurse and war artist
During
Her work as a war artist included three days at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in April 1945, immediately after its liberation.[9][40] Zinkeisen was one of a small number of artists who produced pictures of Bergen-Belsen in the months following its liberation.[41][10] The other artists there included Leslie Cole, Mary Kessell, Sergeant Eric Taylor (one of the camp's liberators), Edgar Ainsworth, and Mervyn Peake.[41] Her painting Human Laundry shows German orderlies washing camp inmates before they go to hospital.[42][43][44] Thomas Sutcliffe, columnist for The Independent described the painting as "flatly representational", "as uninflected as a travel poster", showing "brutalisers obliged to become carers, victims turned to patients".[44] By the time Zinkeisen had become a war artist her palette had already darkened from the colours of her society paintings. Her war paintings use muted greys, browns, and ochres like contemporaries such as Eric Ravilious and Stanley Spencer.
Zinkeisen wrote to her husband while she was at Belsen. Her son, Murray Johnstone, described the letters:[45]
They are truly heartrending and reflect the agony she endured while doing her work as a war artist. She always told us that the sight was awful, but the smell she could never forget. She had nightmares for the rest of her life.
— Murray Johnstone
Paintings from Zinkeisen's time as a war artist are held by the Red Cross museum and archives, the museum of the Order of St John and the Imperial War Museum.[7]
After the war
Her work was part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1948 Summer Olympics.[46] After the war, Zinkeisen continued to work in London as a theatrical designer and held occasional exhibitions of her paintings.[6] She designed the cover of a special edition of Everybody's Magazine to celebrate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in June 1953.[47] In 1954, Zinkeisen designed the scenery and costumes for Noël Coward's musical, After the Ball, based on Oscar Wilde's play, Lady Windermere's Fan,[48][49] and the Prince Littler directed play, The Little Glass Clock, written by Hugh Mills.[50][51]
Portraits by Harold Cazneaux
Harold Cazneaux produced three photographic portraits of Zinkeisen in 1929 in his role as chief photographer for The Home magazine; Doris Zinkeisen: New Idea portrait with patterned background, Doris Zinkeisen: New Idea portrait with leaf background, and Doris Zinkeisen with her brushes.[52]
Doris Zinkeisen: New Idea portrait with leaf background was the first photographic cover for The Home that was launched in Sydney in 1920 and modelled on the American magazines
Personal life
In 1922, while working with Nigel Playfair, Zinkeisen met
Grahame Johnstone died in 1946 and Zinkeisen's twin girls then lived with her, with them all moving to
Books
- Zinkeisen, Doris (1938). Designing for the Stage. The Studio.
- Priestley, J. B.; Doris Zinkeisen (1948). The high toby: a play for the toy theatre (with scenery and characters by Doris Zinkeisen). Penguin Books.
References
- ISBN 978-1-913491-81-9.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ISBN 978-1-906270-89-6.
- ^ a b c d e f g h DWYER, BRITTA C. "The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women – The Zinkeisen sisters – GREAT SCOTSWOMEN". Edinburgh University Press. Archived from the original on 7 August 2007. Retrieved 17 April 2010.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-913491-81-9.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ a b c d e f g h i "Doris Zinkeisen (1898–1991) – Portrait 14". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 17 April 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "Doris Clare Zinkeisen". Dictionary of Australian Artists Online. 14 November 2007. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Mehzebin Adam (11 April 2019). "Doris Zinkeisen: frontline artist who painted the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp". British Red Cross. Archived from the original on 20 October 2020. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
- ^ Kelleway, Philip (2016–2017). "The Zinkeisen Sisters and Celebrity Culture". Journal of the Scottish Society for Art History. 21 (Scotland's Woman Artists 1885-1965): 27–32.
- ^ a b c d e "Doris Zinkeisen". Imperial War Museum. 2008. Retrieved 16 April 2010.
- ^ a b c d Alicia Foster (25 May 2020). "Sister art: Doris and Anna Zinkeisen". Art UK. Retrieved 17 July 2020.
- ^ a b c "The 'Queen Mary' is now a luxurious, historic hotel". St. Petersburg Times. 18 January 2009. Archived from the original on 6 June 2011. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
- ^ "Poster Girls exhibition showcases forgotten design heroines". BBC News. 13 October 2017. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
- ISBN 978-1-871829-28-0.
- ISBN 9781911054160.
- ^ "Berwick-upon-Tweed by LNER". National Museums of Science & Industry.
- ^ "Cambridge it's Quicker by Rail". National Museums of Science & Industry.
- ^ "Durham by LNER". National Museums of Science & Industry.
- ^ "To York – Dick Turpin's Ride". National Museums of Science & Industry.
- ^ "Western Highlands". National Museums of Science & Industry.
- ^ "Scarborough, In Grandmother's Day". National Museums of Science & Industry.
- ^ "Coronation". National Museums of Science & Industry.
- ^ "Southern Railway, A Page from the Atlantic Coast Express". National Museums of Science & Industry.
- ^ "The Coronation". National Museums of Science & Industry.
- ^ "Captain Cook at Whitby". National Museums of Science & Industry.
- ^ "Scotland by East Coast Route – LNER". International Poster Center.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-85973-321-9.
- ISBN 978-1-84714-001-2.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8131-9261-1.
- ISBN 978-0-306-80113-6.
- ISBN 978-0-306-80113-6.
- ^ Nymph Errant, Premier of Cole Porter's Musical with Agnes DeMille's 1st Professional Choreography – Theatre Programme. The Adelphi Theatre. 1933.
- ISBN 978-1-85973-619-7.
- ^ "A Gorgeous Spectacle". The Wall Street Journal. 26 September 1934. Retrieved 2 October 2010.
- ISBN 978-0-306-80113-6.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8264-4733-3.
- ISBN 978-0-415-46696-7.
- ^ a b c "Doris Zinkeisen". BFI.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "BFI – Film & TV Database – The Blue Danube. A Rhapsody (1932)". Ftvdb.bfi.org.uk. 16 April 2009. Archived from the original on 28 January 2009. Retrieved 27 October 2011.
- ISBN 0-415-15451-0.
- ^ Jack Lazenby (2 September 2020). "Women of the wars: five female artists who depicted women's contributions". Art UK. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-300-10890-3.
- Imperial War Museums. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
- ^ Arifa Akbar (8 April 2011). "Women at war: The female British artists who were written out of history". The Independent. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
- ^ a b Sutcliffe, Thomas (12 November 2008). "Thomas Sutcliffe: Approach the Holocaust at your peril". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 25 December 2008. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
- ^ "Personal Story 11: Doris & Anna Zinkeisen" (PDF). Imperial War Museum. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 August 2011. Retrieved 2 October 2010.
- ^ "Doris Zinkeisen". Olympedia. Retrieved 22 August 2020.
- ^ "ELIZABETH II CORONATION DESIGN". Sarah Colegrave. Archived from the original on 21 April 2013.
- ^ "Theatre collections. Event: AFTER THE BALL". University of Kent.
- ^ "Richard Findlater at the new Coward musical". Tribune Magazine. 25 June 1954.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Theatre collections. Event: LITTLE GLASS CLOCK, THE". University of Kent.
- ^ "1984 AND ALL THAT". Tribune Magazine. 17 December 1954.[permanent dead link]
- ^ a b c "Collection". Art Gallery of New South Wales. Retrieved 28 September 2010.
- ^ Lawson, Valerie (26 June 2006). "Thoroughly Modern Sydney". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2 October 2010.
- ^ "Doris Zinkeisen: New Idea portrait with leaf background". Art Gallery of New South Wales. Archived from the original on 12 April 2011. Retrieved 28 September 2010.
- ISBN 978-90-5703-251-6.
- ISBN 978-1-911311-01-0.
- ISBN 0-8166-4386-5.
- ^ a b "Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone (British 1928–1979 and (1928–1998)". Cambridge Book & Print Gallery. Archived from the original on 8 July 2011. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
- ISBN 0-95326-095-X.
- ^ a b Tucker, Nicholas (22 June 1998). "Obituary: Ann Grahame Johnstone". The Independent. London. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
Further reading
- Kelleway, Philip (2008). Highly Desirable: The Zinkeisen Sisters and Their Legacy. Leiston Press. ISBN 978-0-9559673-4-4.
External links
- 23 artworks by or after Doris Zinkeisen at the Art UK site
- St. John Ambulance Brigade at Work in a London Underground Station (1940) by Doris Zinkeisen in The Royal Air Force Museum London collection.
- "Personality meet Doris Zinkeisen" – British Pathénewsreel, 1946-09-09