Harlequin and Pierrot
The present work depicts one of the artist’s favourite subjects, stage and theatre. As the subject suggests, the scene shows three figures in classic pantomime costume. The amusing harlequin wears a mask and a distinctive diamond-patterned outfit and dances around the elegant and beautiful central female figure, whilst a more sinisterly dressed masked musician plays his instrument, allowing the actress to gently dance.
Doris Zinkeisen was born at Rosneath, Argyll, Scotland on 31 July 1898, daughter of Victor Zinkeisen (5 July 1863-30 October 1929), a timber merchant and amateur artist, and his wife Clara née Bolton-Charles (7 September 1869-1952), Doris’s younger sister was Anna Zinkeisen. In 1909, the family moved to Pinner, near Harrow and she studied at Harrow School of Art and in 1917 won a scholarship to the Royal Academy Schools, where she studied with her sister. Her first painting, a portrait of her sister Anna, was shown at the Royal Academy in 1918 which was painted by Doris when she was only aged 16. Doris and her sister shared a studio in London in the 1920’s and 30’s and together they did the murals for the liner Queen Mary, and she also worked widely in other media as an illustrator and commercial artist including producing advertising posters for several British railway companies, the London Underground and murals for the RMS Queen Elizabeth, winning bronze, silver, and gold medals at the Paris Salon.
Her realist style made her popular as a portraitist and she became a well-known society painter. The subject matter of her paintings include society portraiture, equestrian portraiture, and scenes from the parks of London and Paris. These subjects moistly reflect the lifestyle of the upper class at that time. Early on she was taken up by the impresario Nigel Playfair (1874-1934), which led to a lifelong association with the theatre, and she worked with Charles Blake Cochran (1872-1951) and painted the portraits of many notable actresses including Anna Neagle and Evelyn Laye. She worked at the ‘Old Vic’ with Laurence Olivier and created his make-up for the film ‘Richard III’ and wrote her bible ‘Designing for the Stage’. A theatrical stage and costume designer, painter, commercial artist and writer, Doris was also a fine horsewoman, winning the Moscow Cup for the Supreme Hack Championship at the International Horse Show in 1934. Her paintings often feature horses and carriages in period settings and are noted for their clean draughtsmanship and unique palette.
At the end of the Second World War, she was the first artist to enter the infamous Belsen Concentration Camp and two of her painting are in the Imperial War Museum. Zinkeisen continued to work in London as a theatrical designer and held occasional exhibitions of her paintings, also designing the cover of a special edition of ‘Everybody’s Magazine’ to celebrate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 and the following year designed, amongst others, the scenery, and costumes for Noël Coward’s musical, ‘After the Ball’.
She married a naval officer Edward Grahame Johnstone in London in 1927. In 1928 their twin daughters Anne and Janet were born. Both daughters became artists. Doris and Edward also had a son, Murray Johnstone.
