Arabella Rankin

Arabella Louisa Rankin (1871 – 1943) was a Scottish painter and colour woodcut artist.[1]

Arabella Rankin
Born1871
Muthill, Perthshire, Scotland
Died1943
Kensington, London, England
NationalityBritish

Early life

Rankin was born at Muthill in Perthshire.[2]

Arabella Rankin, "Sir Espérance" (1902); the text of the illustration reads "The garden is gay in the month of May/The fire is the flower of the winter's day/God save the King we humbly pray."

Career

Rankin contributed a story, "Kaitrin's Collection", to the 1893 Summer Number of the Dundee Weekly News.[3][4] In 1896, Rankin also won first prize in a contest for artful embroidered book covers, run by Studio International magazine, with her Podley.[5] She also won first prize in a contest run by the same magazine in 1902, for a color illustration titled Sir Espérance.[6] In 1899, her watercolour titled "A Swimming Match" was exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh.[7]

Beyond these very early efforts, Rankin worked primarily with colour woodcuts. Early examples of her prints, such as The Striped Rocks (1920)[8] or Sligneach, Iona (1921),[9] show her using Japanese wood block techniques.[10] Later landscape works, such as Martyr's Bay, Iona and Iona, from 1924 and 1927 respectively, use a more conventional approach.[10]

Rankin was a member of the Colour Woodcut Society and from 1924 to 1935 exhibited regularly with the Society of Graver Painters in Colour.[10] During her career she had some twenty-four pieces shown at the Royal Scottish Academy and also exhibited with the Society of Women Artists, and the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts.[2][11]

Personal life and legacy

After a spell in Edinburgh, Rankin worked in London for a time. She returned to Scotland in 1913 and lived at Abbotsbrae in Crieff before returning to London in 1922. She lived in Kensington for the rest of her life.[2][12]

Both the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum hold examples of her prints.[13][14]

gollark: Wait, can't a lot of "alive" stuff only replicate if it has a suitable environment, too?
gollark: Also, it would consider sterile humans not alive.
gollark: The "and another member of your species" bit does have the interesting implication that you can't really call something alive or not if you just have one of it, then.
gollark: That is true, except I think some cells can't because of DNA damage or something.
gollark: I mean, individual animals can't reproduce on their own, except the weird ones which can.

References
  1. Paul Harris & Julian Halsby (1990). The Dictionary of Scottish Painters 1600 to the Present. Canongate. ISBN 1-84195-150-1.
  2. Peter J.M. McEwan (1994). The Dictionary of Scottish Art and Architecture. Antique Collectors' Club. ISBN 1-85149-134-1.
  3. "The Summer Number of the Weekly News (advertisement)". The Courier and Argus. 1893-06-20. p. 7. Retrieved 2020-05-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "Dundee Weekly News Summer Number". The Courier and Argus. 1893-06-12. p. 3. Retrieved 2020-05-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. "Embroidered Book Cover". The International Studio. 6: 197. 1896.
  6. Holme, Charles; Boswell, Peyton; Eglington, Guy; McCormick, William Bernard; Whigham, Henry James (1902). "Awards in 'The Studio' Prize Competitions". The International Studio. 16: 230.
  7. "Scottish Academy; Annual Exhibition". The Courier and Argus. 1899-02-25. p. 4. Retrieved 2020-05-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. "The striped rocks | Rankin, Arabella Louisa | V&A Search the Collections". V and A Collections. 2020-05-05. Retrieved 2020-05-05.
  9. "Sligneach, Iona | Rankin, Arabella Louisa | V&A Search the Collections". V and A Collections. 2020-05-05. Retrieved 2020-05-05.
  10. Robin Garton (1992). British Printmakers 1855-1955 A Century of Printmaking from the Etching Revival to St Ives. Garton & Co / Scolar Press. ISBN 0-85967-968-3.
  11. Grant M. Waters (1975). Dictionary of British Artists Working 1900-1950. Eastbourne Fine Art.
  12. Simon Houfe (1996). The Dictionary of 19th Century British Book Illustrators. Antique Collectors' Club. ISBN 1-85149-1937.
  13. "Collection search, Arabella Louisa Rankin". British Museum. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
  14. "Arabella Louisa Rankin". Victoria & Albert Museum. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
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