Anna Airy Art
Anna Airy was an English oil painter, pastel artist and etcher. She was one of the first women officially commissioned as a war artist and was recognized as one of the leading women artists of her generation. Airy was born in Greenwich, London, as the daughter of an engineer, Wilfrid Airy and Anna née Listing and the granddaughter of the Astronomer Royal Sir George Biddell Airy. Airy trained at the Slade School of Fine Art in London from 1899 to 1903, where she studied alongside William Orpen and Augustus John and under Fred Brown, Henry Tonks and Philip Wilson Steer. Airy won prizes at the Slade School for portrait, figure and other subjects. She also received the Slade School Scholarship in 1902. She won the Melville Nettleship Prize in 1900, 1901 and 1902. During World War I, Airy was given commissions in several factories and painted her canvases on-site in often difficult and, sometimes, dangerous conditions. For example, while working at great speed to paint A Shell Forge at a National Projectile Factory, Hackney Marshes, London in an extremely hot environment, it is said that the ground became so hot that her shoes were burnt off her feet. This painting was featured in an exhibition at the Imperial War Museum's 2011–2012 exhibition “Women War Artists”. In June 1918, the Munitions Committee of the Imperial War Museum, IWM, commissioned her to create four paintings representing typical scenes in four munitions factories. The Chilwell commission was replaced by a request for a painting of work at the Singer factory in Glasgow. Airy was also commissioned by the Women's Work Section of the IWM during the war. In 1917 she was commissioned by the Canadian War Memorials Fund and in 1940 by the Ministry of Munitions. Airy was married to artist Geoffrey Buckingham Pocock and for many years, the couple lived at Haverstock Hill in Hampstead before moving to Playford near Ipswich. Airy's work was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1905 and each subsequent year until 1956. Her first solo exhibition was held at the Carfax Gallery in 1908. Airy also exhibited at the Paris Salon and in Italy, Canada and in the United States. She has been represented in the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Imperial War Museum. Her work also appeared in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Auckland, New Zealand; Vancouver and Ottawa in Canada; and the Corporation Art Galleries of Liverpool, Leeds, Huddersfield, Birkenhead, Blackpool, Rochdale, Ipswich, Doncaster, Lincoln, Harrogate, Paisley and Newport. Her etching Forerunners of Fruit is in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
1930s Art Deco Anna Airy Art
Watercolor
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Anna Airy Art
Paper, Ink, Watercolor
20th Century Art Deco Anna Airy Art
Ink, Watercolor
20th Century Art Deco Anna Airy Art
Paper, Ink, Watercolor
1930s Art Deco Anna Airy Art
Ink, Watercolor, Board
1930s Art Deco Anna Airy Art
Paper, Gouache, Pencil
1920s Art Deco Anna Airy Art
Gouache, Paper
Early 20th Century Modern Anna Airy Art
Pencil
1920s Art Deco Anna Airy Art
Paper, Watercolor
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Anna Airy Art
Watercolor, Archival Paper, Color Pencil, Pastel
1860s Anna Airy Art
Watercolor
20th Century Art Deco Anna Airy Art
Watercolor, Gouache, Graphite
1890s Realist Anna Airy Art
Watercolor