Amy Katherine Browning
(1881-1978), Painter and teacherAmy Katherine ('A.K.') Browning
Sitter in 4 portraits
by Bassano Ltd
half-plate film negative, 25 April 1939
NPG x158834
by Bassano Ltd
half-plate film negative, 25 April 1939
NPG x158835
by Bassano Ltd
half-plate film negative, 25 April 1939
NPG x158836
by Bassano Ltd
bromide press print, 30 October 1947
NPG x184120
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Abigail Pritchard
17 March 2019, 13:48
A K Browning, was a Suffragist and artist who illustrated for her friend Sylvia Pankhurst’s Women’s Dreadnaught newspaper. A renowned award winning artist in her lifetime, she exhibited successfully in London, Paris (where she won Gold medal), around the UK and overseas. She was, along with other leading British artists of the time, invited to contribute works to Queen Mary’s Dolls House and, unusually for a women, taught the “men-only” students “upstairs” at The Royal College of Art. But, like many great women artists, she has been over-looked by history. “Compelling, challenging.. clever… She is ripe for reappraisal because she’s good.” (Rupert Maas, BBC Antiques Roadshow 2018).
Her famous portrait subjects include individual portraits of Winston Churchill and Lady Churchill, the last commissioned as a gift for Winston. But for most of her portrait subjects she chose to paint women in every day situations.
She signed her paintings AK so she would not be discriminated against as a women.
A.K.Browning was born in Bedfordshire and studied at the Royal College of Art under Gerald Moira, gaining scholarships to study without paying. In 1904 she met fellow student Sylvia Pankhurst, daughter of Suffragette leader Emmeline. Sylvia did a lot of work for the movement, drawing Amy along with her and Amy illustrated for Sylvia’s paper during WW1. She continued studies in Paris and exhibited at the Salon, where she won gold and silver medals. The French Government bought two works for their Luxembourg Collection. Amy exhibited at the Fine Art Society and also showed at Royal Academy from 1906-1970, NEAC, NS, ROI and extensively abroad. But Amy, like many other notable women artists, was not admitted to RA membership. Her work is included in many British provincial collections, including Manchester, Southampton, Ipswich and Glasgow, The Royal Collection and British Government and French Government collections.
She was the subject of a solo retrospective exhibition in 1995 and was the main Suffragette artist featured in the Women 100 Exhibition in Ipswich Art Gallery in 2018, where she was given a solo gallery room. An informative book about Browning and her work, with illustrations, is Joanna Dunham’s ‘Amy K. Browning: An Impressionist in the Women’s Movement’.