The Zinkeisen sisters

Over the years one has seen some fairly awful pictures coming through the salerooms by Doris and Anna Zinkeisen. Doris (1898-1991) developed a reputation as a stage and costume designer and one can see that facility in her art work. Anna (1901-1976) painted in a variety of styles. I was therefore surprised to find myself buying a beautiful work by Anna about a year ago. It was a highly stylised landscape, resembling in some ways the work of Harry Epworth Allen. I was even more surprised at the weekend to see a splendid self-portrait by Doris used as an illustration of a review of a show at the Turner Contemporary Gallery at Ramsgate of self-portraits.

A bit of work on the internet soon showed me how wrong I had been to judge their work by their occasional saleroom pieces. Both painted all sorts of things and both were clearly prodigiously talented. There is a book about them by Philip Kelleway, but too expensive for a casual purchase.