Dame Ethel Mary Smyth
(1858-1944), Composer, writer and suffragetteSitter in 26 portraits
Composer of operas, oratorios and concertos, also a champion of women's rights. Having battled against the constraints of her gender and class to study composition, Smyth gained recognition in Britain with her Mass in D (1893). Works such as the opera The Wreckers (1906) and the orchestral songs Three Moods of the Sea (1913) later increased her reputation. From 1911 to 1913 she devoted herself to the women's suffrage movement for which she provided the battle hymn, The March of the Women.
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