Anna Airy

{{Infobox artist

| name = Anna Airy

| image = Photo of Anna Airy.jpg

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1882|06|06}}

| birth_place = Greenwich, London, England

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1964|10|23|1882|06|06}}

| death_place = Greenwich, London, England

| education = Slade School of Fine Art

| field = Painting, Pastel, Etching

| spouse = Geoffrey Buckingham Pocock

}}

Anna Airy (6 June 1882 – 23 October 1964) was an English oil painter, pastel artist and etcher. She was one of the first women officially commissioned as a war artist{{cite web |author=Arifa Akbar|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/women-at-war-the-female-british-artists-who-were-written-out-of-history-2264670.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220507/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/women-at-war-the-female-british-artists-who-were-written-out-of-history-2264670.html |archive-date=7 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Women at war: The female British artists who were written out of history |date=8 April 2011|access-date=2 September 2013|work=The Independent }}{{cbignore}} and was recognised as one of the leading women artists of her generation.{{cite web|last=Tolson|first=Roger|title=Art and Daily Life in World War Two|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/trail/wars_conflict/art/art_daily_life_gal_03.shtml|publisher=BBC History|access-date=16 June 2012}}

Early life and education

Anna Airy was born on 6 June 1882 in Greenwich, London, the daughter of Anna (née Listing) and Wilfrid Airy, an engineer who worked on Orwell Park Observatory. Her paternal grandparents were Richarda and George Biddell Airy, the Astronomer Royal.{{cite web|title=Founding of Orwell Park Observatory |author=Goward, K. J. |year=2006 |url=http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~ipswich/Observatory/Founding.htm |publisher=Institute of Astronomy |access-date=16 December 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071115140710/http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~ipswich/Observatory/Founding.htm |archive-date=15 November 2007 }}{{Cite web |title=Anna Airy |url=http://www.thompsonsgallery.co.uk/anna-airy |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120719071335/http://www.thompsonsgallery.co.uk/anna-airy |archive-date=19 July 2012 |website=Thompson's Gallery}}{{Cite web |title=Airy, Sir George Biddell (1801–1892), astronomer |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-251 |access-date=2025-03-03 |website=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/251}} Her maternal grandfather was Professor Johann Benedict Listing of the University of Göttingen and her parents met through her grandparents' European scientific connections and married in Göttingen on 27 April 1881.{{Cite web |title=Suffolk Artists - AIRY, Anna |url=https://suffolkartists.co.uk/index.cgi?choice=painter&pid=18 |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=suffolkartists.co.uk}} Airy's German mother died a fortnight after her birth and baby Anna was raised by two of her paternal aunts, Christabel and Annot Airy.{{Cite web |title=Anna Airy: a remarkable forgotten artist {{!}} Art UK |url=https://artuk.org/discover/stories/anna-airy-a-remarkable-forgotten-artist |access-date=2025-03-03 |website=artuk.org |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Suffolk Artists - AIRY, Annot |url=https://suffolkartists.co.uk/index.cgi?choice=painter&pid=3530 |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=suffolkartists.co.uk}}{{Cite web |title=Suffolk Artists - AIRY, Christabel |url=https://suffolkartists.co.uk/index.cgi?choice=painter&pid=3532 |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=suffolkartists.co.uk}}

Her aunts were both artists and encouraged her interest, as did her father who Airy later remembered promising "if I persisted in going in for art when I left school that he would give me the finest art education either in this country or on the Continent that could be had at that time, after which I must stand on my own two feet".

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 including the Slade School Scholarship in 1902. She also won the Melville Nettleship Prize in 1900, 1901 and 1902.{{cite book|title=Who Was Who, 'AIRY, Anna' A & C Black, 1920–2008|date=December 2007|publisher=Oxford University Press|url=http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U56159|edition=online |access-date=16 June 2012}}{{cite book|author=Richard Green|publisher=Richard Green Gallery|year=1995|title=Modern British Paintings (Exhibition Catalogue)}}

During her time as a student, she explored life outside her middle class upbringing, visiting gambling dens and attending prize fights. She claimed to have been in one such establishment when a murder took place, only escaping being questioned by the police by the help of a cardsharp friend. These visits influenced a number of her works such as The Gambling Club and A Cast of Dice.{{Cite web |title=Anna Airy: a remarkable forgotten artist {{!}} Art UK |url=https://artuk.org/discover/stories/anna-airy-a-remarkable-forgotten-artist |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=artuk.org |language=en}}

Work

File:An Aircraft Assembly Shop, Hendon Art.IWMART1931.jpg

During World War I, Airy was given commissions in a number of factories and painted her canvases on site in often difficult and sometimes dangerous conditions. She negotiated a fee of £250 for each of her works and the right to exhibit them to maintain her professional profile.{{Cite web |title=Shoes burnt off my feet: Anna Airy on painting the ferocious heat of… |url=https://www.amdigital.co.uk/insights/blog/anna-airy |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=AM |language=en}} While working at great speed to paint A Shell Forge at a National Projectile Factory, Hackney Marshes, London in an extremely hot environment, "the ground became so hot that her shoes were burnt off her feet".{{cite web |author= |title=A Shell Forge at a National Projectile Factory, Hackney Marshes, London, 1918 |url=http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/106 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211108142530/https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/106 |archive-date=8 November 2021 |access-date=17 April 2013 |work=Imperial War Museum}} This painting was featured in an exhibition at the Imperial War Museum's 2011–2012 exhibition Women War Artists.{{cite web |author= |date=2011 |title=Women War Artists |url=http://archive.iwm.org.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.7165 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140307013840/http://archive.iwm.org.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.7165 |archive-date=7 March 2014 |access-date=17 April 2013 |work=Imperial War Museum}}

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.{{cite web |author= |title=Miss Anna Airy |url=http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1050000038 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180728191346/https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1050000038 |archive-date=28 July 2018 |access-date=17 April 2013 |website=Imperial War Museum}} These included:

National Projectile Factory at Hackney
National Filling Factory at Chilwell, Nottingham, W G Armstrong Whitworth's at Nottingham
Aircraft Manufacturing Co. at Hendon{{cite web |author= |title=An Aircraft Assembly Shop, Hendon |url=http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/101 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211108163311/http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/101 |archive-date=8 November 2021 |access-date=17 April 2013 |work=Imperial War Museum}}
South Metropolitan Gas Co.

The Chilwell commission was replaced by a request for a painting of work at the Singer factory in Glasgow.{{cite web |author= |title=6 Stunning First World War Artworks by Women War Artists |url=http://www.iwm.org.uk/history/6-stunning-first-world-war-artworks-by-women-war-artists |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220717174956/https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/6-stunning-first-world-war-artworks-by-women-war-artists |archive-date=17 July 2022 |access-date=1 April 2017 |work=Imperial War Museum}} 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. Her work was also part of the art competitions at the 1928 Summer Olympics and the 1932 Summer Olympics.{{cite web|url=https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/920429 |title=Anna Airy |work=Olympedia |access-date=27 July 2020}}

Airy was married to the artist Geoffrey Buckingham Pocock and for many years the couple lived at Haverstock Hill in Hampstead before moving to Playford near Ipswich to the house left to her by her father Wilfrid in 1925. She worked as a teacher at Ipswich Art School.{{Cite web |last=Burton |first=Kate |date=2024-06-21 |title=Anna Airy Teacher Pack |url=https://ipswich.cimuseums.org.uk/sdm_downloads/anna-airy/ |access-date=2025-03-03 |website=Ipswich Museums |language=en-GB}}

Exhibitions

Airy's work was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1905 and in each subsequent year there until 1956. Her first one-woman exhibition having been held at the Carfax Gallery in 1908. In 1915, she was describes as "the most accomplished artist of her sex" by an art critic.{{Cite web |last=Tate |title=Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920 large print guide |url=https://www.tate.org.uk/documents/2006/Now_You_See_Us_-_Large_Print_Guide.pdf}} 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{{Cite web |title=The rosy-cheeked ones, circa 1926 by Anna Airy |url=https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/1033/#details |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au |language=en}} as well as in Auckland, New Zealand; Vancouver and Ottawa in Canada; and in the Corporation Art Galleries of Liverpool, Leeds, Huddersfield, Birkenhead, Blackpool, Rochdale, Ipswich, Doncaster, Lincoln, Harrogate, Paisley and Newport and North Lanarkshire.{{Cite web |title=CultureNL Museums |url=https://www.culturenlmuseums.co.uk/SIModes/Detail/15104 |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=www.culturenlmuseums.co.uk}}

A painting by Airy, The Golden Plum Tree, shown at a 1916 exhibition of works by female artists was acquired by Queen Mary.{{cite book|author=Lucy Meretto Peterson |publisher=Pen & Sword Books|year=2018|title=The Women Who Inspired London Art, The Avico Sisters and Other Models of the Early 20th Century |isbn=978-1-5267-2525-7}} Her etching Forerunners of Fruit (c.1925) is in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.{{Cite web |title=Collection: Anna Airy |url=http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/work/445/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120306160805/http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/work/445/ |archive-date=6 March 2012 |website=Art Gallery NSW}}

Two of Airy's works, Shop for Machining 15-inch Shells: Singer Manufacturing Company, Clydebank, Glasgow 1918 and Study for ‘The L Press: Forging the Jacket of an 18-inch Gun, Armstrong-Whitworth Works, Openshaw’ 1918 were included in the Tate Britain exhibition Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920 in 2024.{{Cite web |title=Women’s work |url=https://www.islingtontribune.co.uk/article/womens-work |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=Camden New Journal |language=en-gb}}

Publications

Airy was the author of:

The Art of Pastel (1930) London: Winsor & Newton"Airy, Anna." Chambers Biographical Dictionary. London: Chambers Harrap, 2007. Credo Reference. Web. 25 March 2010
Making a Start in Art (1951) Studio Publications London, New York{{cite book|author=Frances Spalding|author-link=Frances Spalding|publisher=Antique Collectors' Club|year=1990|title=20th Century Painters and Sculptors |isbn=1-85149-106-6}}

Memberships

Airy was a member of several artistic societies.{{cite book|author=Sara Gray|publisher=The Lutterworth Press|year=2009|title=The Dictionary of British Women Artists|isbn=97807-18830847}} She was elected as a member of The Pastel Society in 1906. She also joined the Royal Society of Painters and Etchers in 1908 when the society elected her. She was also an elected member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (1909), Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (1918), and Member of the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts (1952). She was elected as the President of the Ipswich Art Society in 1945 and had significant impact in the role which she held until her death in 1964. An annual student prize is still given in her name.{{Cite web |last=Society |first=Ipswich Art |title=Ipswich Art Society |url=https://ipswich-art-society.org.uk/anna-airy-2024 |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=Ipswich Art Society |language=en-GB}}

Gallery

File:The 'l' Press. Forging the Jacket of an 18-inch Gun- Armstrong-whitworth Works, Openshaw, 1918 Art.IWMART2272.jpg|The 'l' Press. Forging the Jacket of an 18-inch Gun- Armstrong-whitworth Works, Openshaw, 1918

File:This piece was a particular challenge for Airy who had to work with great speed to capture the colour of the molten shells. The tremendous heat of the interior added to the intensity, and one one occassion the ground be Art.IWMART4032.jpg|A Shell Forge at a National Projectile Factory, Hackney Marshes, London, 1918

File:Shop for Machining 15-inch Shells- Singer Manufacturing Company, Clydebank, Glasgow, 1918 Art.IWMART2271.jpg|Shop for Machining 15-inch Shells- Singer Manufacturing Company, Clydebank, Glasgow, 1918

File:Women Working in a Gas Retort House- South Metropolitan Gas Company, London Art.IWMART2852.jpg|Women Working in a Gas Retort House- South Metropolitan Gas Company, London

File:Anna Airy-Cookhouse, Witley Camp (CWM 19710261-0007).jpg|Anna Airy-Cookhouse, Witley Camp