DORIS ZINKEISEN (1898-1991)
Ordeal by Fire



size 18" x 24", oil on canvas, signed on the stretcher

Provenance - From the ICI Collection

Literature - The Studio, 1942 - article and illustration of painting - page 108.

Price on application

Doris Zinkeisen was born in Scotland and studied at the Harrow School of Art, winning a scholarship to the Royal Academy. Her first painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1918. She worked in stage design for the actor-manager Sir Nigel Playfair and many of her paintings are of theatrical subjects. She was an official war artist during the 1939-45 war for The Red Cross and some of her paintings are exhibited at the Imperial War Museum. Two of her paintings now hang in the National Portrait Gallery in London. In 1942 Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd commissioned the leading artists of the day to paint landmark paintings for their advertisements. The artists included Terence Cuneo, Charles Pears, A.R.Thomson, Edward Wadsworth, the sisters Anna and Doris Zinkeisen, C.R.W.Nevinson, John Skeaping, John Armstrong and others. It has been suggested that this painting depicts the latest flame-resistant material developed by ICI being tested.!