Annie Kevans

Annie Kevans studied at Central Saint Martins School of Art & Design from 1999 to 2004 and she graduated with honours in Fine Art.  She was a finalist in the Women of the Future (2007) and Jerwood Drawing Prize (2006) awards. Her first solo show was held at Studio 1.1 in London, 2006, and since then she has held exhibitions in many galleries across Europe and the USA.

The series Women and the History of Art, comprises of reimagined portraits of female artists who have largely been forgotten by modern audiences. It asks why successful female artists are unknown, while also celebrating these forgotten masters by re-introducing them onto the walls of galleries and museums. One writer described the series as “both a “thank you” to the women who have been inspirational to Kevans’ own career and a pithy “fuck you” to the historians and curators who continue to downplay their role in art history”.

Susan Penelope Rosse (c. 1652 – 1700) was a British portrait painter who painted Charles II’s mistresses and many other women in miniature format. Her father Richard Gibson was a miniaturist from whom Penelope received her training. Portrait miniature was popular in England in the seventeenth century, and Susan Penelope Ross became one of the best known artists of this genre. Her works were generally very small – some no large than an inch in length.