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Annie French (6 Februray 1872 – 27 January 1965) was a Scottish painter, engraver, illustrator, and designer, best known for her illustrations of fairy tales, poems, postcards and greeting cards.[1][2] She was born in Govan, Glasgow, the daughter of Andrew French, a colliery clerk, and his wife, Margaret Weir.[2]
Annie studied under Francis Newbery at the Glasgow School of Art from 1886 until 1889,[2] and from 1906 exhibited at the Royal Academy.[3] From 1906 to 1914 she shared a studio with two of her fellow Glasgow Girls, Bessie Young and Jane Younger, and she taught in the Ceramics Department of the Glasgow School of Art from 1909 until 1912.[1]
Annie’s highly detailed style mixed Art Nouveau with a “touch” of Aubrey Beardsley.[4]
Personal life
Annie married the artist George Wooliscroft Rhead in 1914, and settled in London the following year. But the marriage was short-lived, as Wooliscroft Rhead died in 1920.[4] She died in a nursing home in St Helier, Jersey on 27 January 1965.[2]
