Portrait of Consuela Kennedy in Evening Dress

The sitter was born in 1907 in Zuito, Equador, where her father was manager of the Railway and several hotels. Her mother was Spanish and she was educated in England. She became a well-known socialite and was in particular, a great friend of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. She married three times and died in 1975.

Anna Katrina Zinkeisen, was born at Kilcreggan, Dumbartonshire on 29 August 1901, daughter of Victor Zinkeisen (1863-1929), a timber merchant, and his wife Clare née Bolton-Charles. Anna, and her sister Doris Clare Zinkeisen attended Harrow School of Art before they both won scholarships to the Royal Academy Schools where she won several medals. In 1935, Anna and her sister Doris, were commissioned by John Brown and Company, shipbuilders of Clydebank, to paint the murals in the Verandah Grill of the famous ocean liner the RMS Queen Mary. Their work can still be seen on the ship, now permanently moored in Long Beach, California and Anna also painted murals for the liner Queen Elizabeth. In 1941, during World War II, the Zinkeisen sisters were both employed as war artists for the North West Europe Commission of the Joint War Organisation of the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St John, at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, where they and made pathological drawings of war injuries for the Royal College of Surgeons. Portrait, figure, landscape and mural painter, artist and book illustrator she exhibited widely including at the Royal Academy; Royal Society of British Artists; Royal Hibernian Academy; Royal Institute of Oil Painters; Society of Women Artists; Royal Scottish Academy; Redfern Gallery and in the provinces and abroad. Her painting of plastic surgeon Sir Archibald Hector McIndoe is exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery (London) as is her self-portrait.