User:Melissa Highton/Anne Finlay

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Life and Work
Anne Finlay was born in Edinbrgh in 1898, she died in Richmond in 1963. She spent her early years in Edinburgh and attended school in Manor Place in the city, where she studied French.

Finlay studied at Edinburgh College of Art 1917- c.1920. She studied drawing and painting but did not obtain her diploma.

She regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy in London from 1932 onwards, the  Royal Scottish Academy and as part of the  Society of Women Artists between 1934 and 1956. She was part of the circle of friends who comprised the artists community in Edinburgh at the time. The group included Dorothy Johnstone, Cecile Walton, Eric Robertson and D.M Sutherland. A portrait of Finlay by her friend and fellow artist Johnstone featured in the posters and promotional materials associated with the Modern Scottish Women Exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in 2015-16. The portrait is owned by Aberdeen Art Gallery She was described as attractive and vivacious, with a 'certain disregard for propriety' and posed as a model for several of the artists in the group. Her nickname was 'Spook'.

Finlay moved to London in 1922, she lived in London Borough of Hampstead. To support herself she taught French, Art and Music at nearby private schools. She painted portraits of friends and family and invited nieces and newphews to sit for her as models. She enjoyed painting children. She made friends with women who came and went from the baby clinic near her house and made drawings of their babies. Some of these baby portraits were amongst work exhibited at the Orleans Gallery in Richmond. She painted portraits of friends and family and invited nieces and newphews to sit for her as models. She enjoyed painting children. She made friends with women who came and went from the baby clinic near her house and made drawings of their babies. Some of these baby portraits were amongst work exhibited at the Orleans Gallery in Richmond. She also painted landscapes. While living in Richmond she painted the river Thames, she kept a caravan near Sittingbourne in Kent, from which she often painted the mudflats at Swale.

Personal Life
Anne's personal life included an affairs with the painters James McBey  and Ernest Proctor and a relationship with Phillip Connard. She lived with Connard in Richmond, England. Following her death in 1963 she bequeathed works by Connard and herself to the Borough.