Radnorshire Fine Arts Ltd

Description

Suffragette smoking a cigarette.
Water-colour-body-colour on grey paper.
Early 1900s.
Unsigned.
Framed.
Possibly by Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst 1882-1960 daughter of Emmeline Goulden Pankhurst (1858-1928) - leader of the British suffragette movement.
In 1900 Sylvia Pankhurst won a scholarship to study design at the Manchester School of Art where she was strongly influenced by the socialist artist Walter Crane. She travelled to Venice to study art (1902). In 1904 she settled down in London and studied at the Royal College of Art in South Kensington for a number of years. Her best known monumental work is the decoration of the Pankhurst Hall in Salford, erected by the Independent Labour Party to commemorate her father. She also designed the logo, scarves, brooches and the like for the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) and its first organ Votes for Women. Her largest designs probably were the murals for the WSPU at the Women’s Exhibition in 1909.
This interesting illustration has the potential to achieve a higher level of value if further research can establish the identity of the artist.
There are exstensive archives on the British Suffragette Movement at The Womens Museum in London.