Susan Isabel Dacre

Interior - Children Playing - British Victorian children's portrait oil painting

1880

Susan Isabel Dacre was an English artist of the Victorian era. She was born in Leamington, Warwickshire, in 1844 and was educated in Salford. For the decade of 1858–68, she lived in Paris. After a winter in Italy (1869), she returned to Paris, and was present during the Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune. She returned to England in 1871 and began studying art at the Manchester School of Art, where she won the Queen's Prize in 1875. She began a lifelong friendship with fellow artist Annie Swynnerton (1844–1933), the two women pursued their art studies in Rome and Paris between 1874–80. Throughout Dacre’s career, her portraits were admired in Italy, England and Paris. After living in London for a time, she returned to Manchester in 1883 and shared a studio in 10 King Street with the artist Mary Florence Monkhouse (1858–1946). After much campaigning by both Dacre and Monkhouse in 1897, Dacre was made a member of the council of the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts. At the Royal Jubilee Exhibition, Manchester 1887, she had her work on display and assisted Ford Madox Brown (1821–1893) with the decoration of the exhibition’s dome. Dacre was a noted feminist and suffragette. With Annie Swynnerton she founded the Manchester Society of Women Artists in 1876. Dacre also served as president of the organization. For a decade (1885–95), Dacre was a member of the executive committee of the Manchester National Society for Women's Suffrage.