Doris Zinkeisen
Encyclopedia
Doris Clare Zinkeisen was a Scottish theatrical stage and costume designer, painter, commercial artist and writer. She was best known for her work in theatrical design.
-born Clare Bolton-Charles and Victor Zinkeisen, a timber merchant and amateur artist from Glasgow
. Her father's family were originally from Bohemia
and had been settled in Scotland for two hundred years. She had a younger sister, Anna Zinkeisen
who also became an artist. The family left Scotland and moved to Pinner
, near Harrow
in 1909.
at the time.
She also worked widely in other media as an illustrator and commercial artist including producing advertising posters for several British railway companies, the London Underground
and murals for the RMS Queen Mary
.
(LNER), Southern Railway (SR) and London, Midland and Scottish Railway
(LMS) in the 1930s. The posters often featured historical themes and included; Berwick-upon-Tweed by LNER (1930) which shows Isabella MacDuff, Countess of Buchan being punished by Edward I for crowning Robert the Bruce at Scone
in 1306, Cambridge it's Quicker by Rail (1930) for LNER which shows Queen Elizabeth I visiting Queens College
in 1564, Durham by LNER (1932) based on the legend of the dun cow shows pilgrims following a milkmaid with Durham Cathedral
in the background, To York - Dick Turpin's Ride (1934) for LNER showing the 18th century highwayman, Dick Turpin
riding to York
on his horse Black Bes with York Minster
in the background, Western Highlands - Rob Roy (1934) for LNER/LMS showing Rob Roy
standing on a mountain, Scarborough, In Grandmother's Day (1935) for LNER showing people in Scarborough on the spa bandstand in Victorian dress, with the castle and sea in the background, Coronation (1937) for LNER showing the Coronation, the locomotive built by Timothy Hackworth in 1831 in honour of the coronation of King William IV, What to see from the windows of the Atlantic Coast Express (1937), a guidebook produced for SR with illustrations, The Coronation (1937) with the text "designed by Sir Nigel Gresley
, Chief Mechanical Engineer, LNER, in honour of the coronation of King George VI. Kings Cross - Edinburgh in 6 hours" showing the Coronation passing through the countryside, Captain Cook at Whitby (c. 1937) for LNER showing Captain Cook and two Royal Navy officers in Whitby
harbour with St Mary's Church and Whitby Abbey
in the background. The poster's text says "His voyages round the world for making new discoveries were undertaken in the Endeavour
in 1768 and the Resolution in 1772. Both these ships were built at Whitby. It's quicker by rail. London and North Eastern Railway." and Scotland by East Coast Route - LNER with the text "The articles of union between england & scotland were secretly signed in a cellar in high Street edinburgh 1706".
commissioned both of the Zinkeisen sisters to paint the murals in the Verandah Grill, a restaurant and night-club on the ocean liner the RMS Queen Mary. The murals, on the theme of entertainment, depicted circus and theatre scenes and can still be seen on the ship, now permanently moored in Long Beach, California
. Zinkeisen was also involved in planning the interior decoration which featured a parquet dance floor surrounded by black Wilton carpets, star-studded red velvet curtains and a sweeping illuminated balustrade whose colours changed in time with the music. Writing in Vogue
in 1936, Cecil Beaton
described the Verandah Grill as ‘By far the prettiest room on any ship – becomingly lit, gay in colour and obviously so successful that it would be crowded if twice its present size’. The largest mural was damaged during World War II by gunnery officers tacking charts to the poster board covering the mural. After the war, Zinkeisen restored the mural and reportedly painted a mouse in the mural so there would always be a mouse on the Queen Mary, a dig at Cunard
, which prided itself on having no rodents on their ships. Both sisters also contributed murals to the RMS Queen Elizabeth
in 1940.
(1929) and the Royal Society of Portrait Painters
in London and in Paris
and the United States
. She received Bronze (1929), Silver (1930) and Gold (1934) Paris Salon medals for her work. By 1929 she had been elected a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters
(ROI).
She started to work in stage design as soon as she completed her studies at the Royal Academy. Her first job was working for the actor-manager Nigel Playfair
. Playfair wanted Zinkeisen to sing in the productions, but Zinkeisen insisted on remaining behind the scenes. One of the first plays she worked on was Clifford Bax
and Playfair's 1923 adaptation of The Insect Play by Karel
and Josef Čapek
. The play ran for 42 performances in May and June of 1923 at the Regent Theatre in London. Claude Rains
played three roles and the production was the professional debut for John Gielgud
. Rains described Zinkeisen as "a stunning women".
She became chief stage and costume designer for Charles B. Cochran
's popular London revues. Cochran described her work in an article published in The Studio magazine in 1927.
In 1928, she designed the costumes for This Year of Grace
by Noël Coward
(also referred to as "Cochran's Revue" or "Cochran's 1928 Revue") at the London Pavilion
. In 1933, Zinkeison designed the decor and costumes for Cochran's production of Cole Porter
's musical Nymph Errant
at the Adelphi Theatre
, London
. The décolletage
formed by the low cut design of one of the costumes resulted in a strike by the chorus against the perceived indecency of the costume. Theatre manager C. B. Cochran was compelled to have the waistcoat altered to fill up the gap with gauze. In 1934, she designed the costumes for the Broadway
musical The Great Waltz
at the Center Theatre, together with Marion Claire, Marie Burke and Guy Robertson. In 1935, she designed the costumes and sets for Stop Press, the retitled London based version of the As Thousands Cheer
revue by Moss Hart
and Irving Berlin
at the Adelphi Theatre. After the Blitz
, during the Second World War, she designed costumes and sets for the Old Vic Company productions of Arms and the Man
and Richard III
with Ralph Richardson
, Sybil Thorndike
and Laurence Olivier
at the New Theatre
.
She worked on a number of Herbert Wilcox
films that starred Anna Neagle
, including the film version of Noel Coward
's operetta
Bitter Sweet
(1933), The Little Damozel
which included a nearly transparent dress that was subsequently used by Neagle in several publicity photos and public appearences, Nell Gwyn (1934), The Queen's Affair
(1934), Peg of Old Drury
(1935), and the screen biography of Queen Victoria, Victoria the Great
, together with its sequel, Sixty Glorious Years
. Wilcox's 1932 film The Blue Danube
was based on a short story by Zinkeisen. British
director James Whale
specifically directed Zinkeisen to design the costumes for the only American
film she ever worked on, the 1936 screen version of Show Boat
. It remains today the most popular and highly regarded film that Zinkeisen ever worked on. In 1938 she wrote Designing for the Stage, a book regarded by Sue Harper, Professor of Film History, as an "influential innovation". According to Harper, Zinkeisen described how she "valued visual flair and 'fantastic treatment' above all", that she thought theatrical and film performances should be led by the mise-en-scène and that audiences were unconsciously able to "decode complex visual details". In 1955, Zinkeisen created Laurence Olivier's make-up for the Richard III film
.
, Zinkeisen joined the St John Ambulance Brigade and worked as a nurse in London helping wartime Blitz
casualties having first trained as a Voluntary Aid Detachment
(VAD) nurse during World War I
. She worked in the casualty department in St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington
. Zinkeisen worked in the casualty department in the mornings and painted in the afternoons, recording the events of the day.
Following the liberation of Europe in 1945, Zinkeisen was commissioned by the War Artists Advisory Committee as a war artist
for the North West Europe Commission of the Joint War Organisation of the British Red Cross Society
and the Order of St John (JWO). As the organisation's staff and resources moved into newly liberated areas, Zinkeisen's role as a war artist was to record the commission's activities. Based in Brussels
at the commission's headquarters she recorded the commission's post-war relief work in north west Europe including the rehabilitation and repatriation of prisoners of war and civilian internees. Zinkeisen traveled by lorry or by air (from a nearby RAF base) throughout north-west Europe making sketches which she brought back to her studio in the commission's headquarters for further work.
Her work as a war artist included three days at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
in April 1945, immediately after its liberation. Zinkeisen was one of a small number of artists who produced pictures of Bergen-Belsen in the months following its liberation. Other artists included Leslie Cole, Mary Kessell, Sargeant Eric Taylor (one of the camp's liberators) and Mervyn Peake
. Her painting Human Laundry shows German orderlies washing camp inmates before they go to hospital. Thomas Sutcliffe, columnist for The Independent
described the painting as "flatly representational", "as uninflected as a travel poster", showing "brutalisers obliged to become carers, victims turned to patients". By the time Zinkeisen had become a war artist her palette had already darkened from the colours of her society paintings. Her war paintings use muted greys, browns and ochres like contemporaries such as Eric Ravilious
and Stanley Spencer
.
Paintings from Zinkeisen's time as a war artist are held by the Red Cross museum and archives, the museum of the Order of St John and the Imperial War Museum.
Zinkeisen wrote to her husband while she was at Belsen. Her son, Murray Johnstone, described the letters:
produced three photographic portraits of Zinkeisen in 1929 in his role as chief photographer for The Home magazine; Doris Zinkeisen: New Idea portrait with patterned background, Doris Zinkeisen: New Idea portrait with leaf background and Doris Zinkeisen with her brushes.
Doris Zinkeisen: New Idea portrait with leaf background was the first photographic cover for The Home which was launched in Sydney in 1920 and modelled on the American magazines Vanity Fair
and House & Garden
. Zinkeisen was said to have epitomised the "New Feminine Beauty" described by The Home in 1929 as "stark simplicity of line, of corners, angles, slimness, sharpness … twenty years ago we were born curvy and now we are born straight." The leaf background was painted by the Australian artist Adrian Feint
. The photographs are part of the Art Gallery of New South Wales' Cazneaux collection.
. The two were considered a couple for some two years, despite Whale's living as an openly gay man. The couple was reportedly engaged in 1924 but by 1925 the engagement was off. Zinkeisen married Grahame Johnstone, a naval officer in 1927 and had twin daughters in June 1928, the children's book illustrators Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone
and a son, Murray Johnstone. Grahame Johnstone died in 1946 and Zinkeisen's twin girls then lived with their mother moving with her to Suffolk in 1966. Zinkeisen outlived her daughter Janet who died in an accident in 1979.
Doris Zinkeisen died on 3 January 1991, in Badingham, Suffolk, aged 92.
Early life
Doris Zinkeisen was born in Rosneath, Argyll, Scotland. Her parents were WelshWelsh people
The Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...
-born Clare Bolton-Charles and Victor Zinkeisen, a timber merchant and amateur artist from Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
. Her father's family were originally from Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
and had been settled in Scotland for two hundred years. She had a younger sister, Anna Zinkeisen
Anna Zinkeisen
Anna Katrina Zinkeisen was a Scottish painter and artist.in 1935, Anna Zinkeisen and her sister Doris Zinkeisen were commissioned by John Brown and Company Shipbuilders of Clydebank to paint the murals in the Verandah Grill of the famous ocean liner the RMS Queen Mary...
who also became an artist. The family left Scotland and moved to Pinner
Pinner
- Climate :Pinner's geographical position on the far western side of North West London makes it the furthest London suburb from any UK coastline. Hence the lower prevalence of moderating maritime influences make Pinner noticeably warmer in the spring and the summer compared to the rest of the capital...
, near Harrow
Harrow, London
Harrow is an area in the London Borough of Harrow, northwest London, United Kingdom. It is a suburban area and is situated 12.2 miles northwest of Charing Cross...
in 1909.
Education
Zinkeisen attended the Harrow School of Art for four years and won a scholarship to the Royal Academy Schools in 1917 together with her sister Anna.Career
Zinkeisen shared a studio in London with her sister during the 1920s and 30's from where she embarked on her career as a painter, commercial artist and theatrical designer.Painting and commercial art
Zinkeisen's realist style made her popular as a portraitist and she became a well-known society painter. The subject matter of her paintings, society portraiture, equestrian portraiture and scenes from the parks of London and Paris reflect the lifestyle of the upper classUpper class
In social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...
at the time.
She also worked widely in other media as an illustrator and commercial artist including producing advertising posters for several British railway companies, the London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
and murals for the RMS Queen Mary
RMS Queen Mary
RMS Queen Mary is a retired ocean liner that sailed primarily in the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967 for the Cunard Line...
.
Railway posters
Zinkeisen produced a number of posters for London and North Eastern RailwayLondon and North Eastern Railway
The London and North Eastern Railway was the second-largest of the "Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain...
(LNER), Southern Railway (SR) and London, Midland and Scottish Railway
London, Midland and Scottish Railway
The London Midland and Scottish Railway was a British railway company. It was formed on 1 January 1923 under the Railways Act of 1921, which required the grouping of over 120 separate railway companies into just four...
(LMS) in the 1930s. The posters often featured historical themes and included; Berwick-upon-Tweed by LNER (1930) which shows Isabella MacDuff, Countess of Buchan being punished by Edward I for crowning Robert the Bruce at Scone
Scone, Scotland
Scone is a village in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. The medieval village of Scone, which grew up around the monastery and royal residence, was abandoned in the early 19th century when the residents were removed and a new palace was built on the site by the Earl of Mansfield...
in 1306, Cambridge it's Quicker by Rail (1930) for LNER which shows Queen Elizabeth I visiting Queens College
Queens' College, Cambridge
Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou , and refounded in 1465 by Elizabeth Woodville...
in 1564, Durham by LNER (1932) based on the legend of the dun cow shows pilgrims following a milkmaid with Durham Cathedral
Durham Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin and St Cuthbert of Durham is a cathedral in the city of Durham, England, the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Durham. The Bishopric dates from 995, with the present cathedral being founded in AD 1093...
in the background, To York - Dick Turpin's Ride (1934) for LNER showing the 18th century highwayman, Dick Turpin
Dick Turpin
Richard "Dick" Turpin was an English highwayman whose exploits were romanticised following his execution in York for horse theft. Turpin may have followed his father's profession as a butcher early in life, but by the early 1730s he had joined a gang of deer thieves, and later became a poacher,...
riding to York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
on his horse Black Bes with York Minster
York Minster
York Minster is a Gothic cathedral in York, England and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe alongside Cologne Cathedral. The minster is the seat of the Archbishop of York, the second-highest office of the Church of England, and is the cathedral for the Diocese of York; it is run by...
in the background, Western Highlands - Rob Roy (1934) for LNER/LMS showing Rob Roy
Rob Roy
Rob Roy may refer to the following:*A colloquial name for Scottish hero Robert Roy MacGregor, who has been described as the Scottish Robin Hood* Rob Roy , from the Child Ballads...
standing on a mountain, Scarborough, In Grandmother's Day (1935) for LNER showing people in Scarborough on the spa bandstand in Victorian dress, with the castle and sea in the background, Coronation (1937) for LNER showing the Coronation, the locomotive built by Timothy Hackworth in 1831 in honour of the coronation of King William IV, What to see from the windows of the Atlantic Coast Express (1937), a guidebook produced for SR with illustrations, The Coronation (1937) with the text "designed by Sir Nigel Gresley
Nigel Gresley
Sir Herbert Nigel Gresley was one of Britain's most famous steam locomotive engineers, who rose to become Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London and North Eastern Railway . He was the designer of some of the most famous steam locomotives in Britain, including the LNER Class A1 and LNER Class A4...
, Chief Mechanical Engineer, LNER, in honour of the coronation of King George VI. Kings Cross - Edinburgh in 6 hours" showing the Coronation passing through the countryside, Captain Cook at Whitby (c. 1937) for LNER showing Captain Cook and two Royal Navy officers in Whitby
Whitby
Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a combined maritime, mineral and tourist heritage, and is home to the ruins of Whitby Abbey where Caedmon, the...
harbour with St Mary's Church and Whitby Abbey
Whitby Abbey
Whitby Abbey is a ruined Benedictine abbey overlooking the North Sea on the East Cliff above Whitby in North Yorkshire, England. It was disestablished during the Dissolution of the Monasteries under the auspices of Henry VIII...
in the background. The poster's text says "His voyages round the world for making new discoveries were undertaken in the Endeavour
HMS Endeavour
HMS Endeavour may refer to one of the following ships:In the Royal Navy:, a 36-gun ship purchased in 1652 and sold in 1656, a 4-gun bomb vessel purchased in 1694 and sold in 1696, a fire ship purchased in 1694 and sold in 1696, a storeship hoy purchased in 1694 and sold in 1705, a storeship...
in 1768 and the Resolution in 1772. Both these ships were built at Whitby. It's quicker by rail. London and North Eastern Railway." and Scotland by East Coast Route - LNER with the text "The articles of union between england & scotland were secretly signed in a cellar in high Street edinburgh 1706".
RMS Queen Mary
In 1935, John Brown and Company Shipbuilders of ClydebankClydebank
Clydebank is a town in West Dunbartonshire, in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, Clydebank borders Dumbarton, the town with which it was combined to form West Dunbartonshire, as well as the town of Milngavie in East Dunbartonshire, and the Yoker and...
commissioned both of the Zinkeisen sisters to paint the murals in the Verandah Grill, a restaurant and night-club on the ocean liner the RMS Queen Mary. The murals, on the theme of entertainment, depicted circus and theatre scenes and can still be seen on the ship, now permanently moored in Long Beach, California
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
. Zinkeisen was also involved in planning the interior decoration which featured a parquet dance floor surrounded by black Wilton carpets, star-studded red velvet curtains and a sweeping illuminated balustrade whose colours changed in time with the music. Writing in Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
in 1936, Cecil Beaton
Cecil Beaton
Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, CBE was an English fashion and portrait photographer, diarist, painter, interior designer and an Academy Award-winning stage and costume designer for films and the theatre...
described the Verandah Grill as ‘By far the prettiest room on any ship – becomingly lit, gay in colour and obviously so successful that it would be crowded if twice its present size’. The largest mural was damaged during World War II by gunnery officers tacking charts to the poster board covering the mural. After the war, Zinkeisen restored the mural and reportedly painted a mouse in the mural so there would always be a mouse on the Queen Mary, a dig at Cunard
Cunard Line
Cunard Line is a British-American owned shipping company based at Carnival House in Southampton, England and operated by Carnival UK. It has been a leading operator of passenger ships on the North Atlantic for over a century...
, which prided itself on having no rodents on their ships. Both sisters also contributed murals to the RMS Queen Elizabeth
RMS Queen Elizabeth
RMS Queen Elizabeth was an ocean liner operated by the Cunard Line. Plying with her running mate Queen Mary as a luxury liner between Southampton, UK and New York City, USA via Cherbourg, France, she was also contracted for over twenty years to carry the Royal Mail as the second half of the two...
in 1940.
Exhibitions and awards
Zinkeisen exhibited at the Royal AcademyRoyal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
(1929) and the Royal Society of Portrait Painters
Royal Society of Portrait Painters
The Royal Society of Portrait Painters is a British association of portrait painters which holds an annual exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London...
in London and in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. She received Bronze (1929), Silver (1930) and Gold (1934) Paris Salon medals for her work. By 1929 she had been elected a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters
Royal Institute of Oil Painters
The Royal Institute of Oil Painters, also known as ROI, is an association of painters in London and is the only major art society which features work done only in oil. It is a member society of the Federation of British Artists.-History:...
(ROI).
Stage and costume design
Zinkeisen was a successful stage and costume designer for plays and films. Despite her success as a painter and commercial artist she was best known as a theatrical designer.She started to work in stage design as soon as she completed her studies at the Royal Academy. Her first job was working for the actor-manager Nigel Playfair
Nigel Playfair
Sir Nigel Playfair was the actor-manager of the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, London, in the 1920s. He studied at University College, Oxford....
. Playfair wanted Zinkeisen to sing in the productions, but Zinkeisen insisted on remaining behind the scenes. One of the first plays she worked on was Clifford Bax
Clifford Bax
Clifford Bax was a versatile English writer, known particularly as a playwright, a journalist, critic and editor, and a poet, lyricist and hymn writer. He also was a translator, for example of Goldoni...
and Playfair's 1923 adaptation of The Insect Play by Karel
Karel Capek
Karel Čapek was Czech writer of the 20th century.-Biography:Born in 1890 in the Bohemian mountain village of Malé Svatoňovice to an overbearing, emotional mother and a distant yet adored father, Čapek was the youngest of three siblings...
and Josef Čapek
Josef Capek
Josef Čapek was a Czech artist who was best known as a painter, but who was also noted as a writer and a poet. He invented the word robot, which was introduced into literature by his brother, Karel Čapek.- Biography :...
. The play ran for 42 performances in May and June of 1923 at the Regent Theatre in London. Claude Rains
Claude Rains
Claude Rains was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned 66 years. He was known for many roles in Hollywood films, among them the title role in The Invisible Man , a corrupt senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington , Mr...
played three roles and the production was the professional debut for John Gielgud
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
. Rains described Zinkeisen as "a stunning women".
She became chief stage and costume designer for Charles B. Cochran
Charles B. Cochran
Sir Charles Blake Cochran , generally known as C. B. Cochran, was an English theatrical manager. He produced some of the most successful musical revues, musicals and plays of the 1920s and 1930s, becoming associated with Noel Coward and his works.-Biography:Cochran was born in Sussex and educated...
's popular London revues. Cochran described her work in an article published in The Studio magazine in 1927.
In 1928, she designed the costumes for This Year of Grace
This Year of Grace
This Year of Grace is a revue with a book, music, and lyrics by Noël Coward.It opened in London on March 22, 1928 at the London Pavilion and ran nearly ten months, with a cast featuring Sonnie Hale, Maisie Gay, Jessie Matthews, Sheilah Graham and Tilly Losch among others. Doris Zinkeisen was one of...
by Noël Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
(also referred to as "Cochran's Revue" or "Cochran's 1928 Revue") at the London Pavilion
London Pavilion
The London Pavilion is a building located on the corner of Shaftesbury Avenue and Coventry Street on the north-east side of, and facing, Piccadilly Circus in London...
. In 1933, Zinkeison designed the decor and costumes for Cochran's production of Cole Porter
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...
's musical Nymph Errant
Nymph Errant
Nymph Errant is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter and book by Romney Brent based upon the novel by James Laver. The somewhat controversial story concerned a young English lady intent upon losing her virginity. Porter considered the score his best because of its worldliness and sexual...
at the Adelphi Theatre
Adelphi Theatre
The Adelphi Theatre is a 1500-seat West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiving house for a variety of productions, including many musicals...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. The décolletage
Décolletage
Décolletage is the upper part of a woman's torso, between her waist and neck, comprising her neck, shoulders, back and chest, that is exposed by the style of her clothing. However, the term is most commonly applied to a neckline which reveals or emphasizes cleavage...
formed by the low cut design of one of the costumes resulted in a strike by the chorus against the perceived indecency of the costume. Theatre manager C. B. Cochran was compelled to have the waistcoat altered to fill up the gap with gauze. In 1934, she designed the costumes for the Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
musical The Great Waltz
The Great Waltz
The Great Waltz is a musical conceived by Hassard Short with a book by Moss Hart and lyrics by Desmond Carter, using themes by Johann Strauss I and Johann Strauss II. It is based on a pasticcio by Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Julius Bittner called Walzer aus Wien, first performed in Vienna in 1930...
at the Center Theatre, together with Marion Claire, Marie Burke and Guy Robertson. In 1935, she designed the costumes and sets for Stop Press, the retitled London based version of the As Thousands Cheer
As Thousands Cheer
As Thousands Cheer is a revue with a book by Moss Hart and music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, first performed in 1933. The revue contained satirical sketches and witty or poignant musical numbers, several of which became standards, including "Heat Wave", "Easter Parade" and "Harlem on my Mind." ...
revue by Moss Hart
Moss Hart
Moss Hart was an American playwright and theatre director, best known for his interpretations of musical theater on Broadway.-Early years:...
and Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...
at the Adelphi Theatre. After the Blitz
The Blitz
The Blitz was the sustained strategic bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. The city of London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights and many towns and cities across the country followed...
, during the Second World War, she designed costumes and sets for the Old Vic Company productions of Arms and the Man
Arms and the Man
Arms and the Man is a comedy by George Bernard Shaw, whose title comes from the opening words of Virgil's Aeneid in Latin:"Arma virumque cano" ....
and Richard III
Richard III (play)
Richard III is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England. The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified...
with Ralph Richardson
Ralph Richardson
Sir Ralph David Richardson was an English actor, one of a group of theatrical knights of the mid-20th century who, though more closely associated with the stage, also appeared in several classic films....
, Sybil Thorndike
Sybil Thorndike
Dame Agnes Sybil Thorndike CH DBE was a British actress.-Early life:She was born in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire to Arthur Thorndike and Agnes Macdonald. Her father was a Canon of Rochester Cathedral...
and Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
at the New Theatre
Noël Coward Theatre
The Noël Coward Theatre, formerly known as the Albery Theatre, is a West End theatre on St. Martin's Lane in the City of Westminster. It opened on 12 March 1903 as the New Theatre and was built by Sir Charles Wyndham behind Wyndham's Theatre which was completed in 1899. The building was designed by...
.
She worked on a number of Herbert Wilcox
Herbert Wilcox
Herbert Sydney Wilcox was a British film producer and director.-Early life:Wilcox's mother was from County Cork, Ireland, but he was born in Norwood and attended school in Brighton...
films that starred Anna Neagle
Anna Neagle
Forming a professional alliance with Wilcox, Neagle played her first starring film role in the musical Goodnight Vienna , again with Jack Buchanan. With this film Neagle became an overnight favourite...
, including the film version of Noel Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
's operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
Bitter Sweet
Bitter Sweet (1933 film)
Bitter Sweet is a musical romance film directed by Herbert Wilcox and released by United Artists in 1933. It was the first film adaptation of Noel Coward's 1929 operetta Bitter Sweet. It starred Anna Neagle and Fernand Gravey, with Ivy St. Helier reviving her stage role as Manon.It tells the story...
(1933), The Little Damozel
The Little Damozel
The Little Damozel is a 1933 British romance film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, James Rennie and Benita Hume. A Captain pays one of his sailors to marry a woman who works in a nightclub.-Cast:* Anna Neagle ... Julie Alardy...
which included a nearly transparent dress that was subsequently used by Neagle in several publicity photos and public appearences, Nell Gwyn (1934), The Queen's Affair
The Queen's Affair
The Queen's Affair is a 1934 British musical film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Fernand Gravey, Muriel Aked and Edward Chapman. An Eastern European President falls in love with the Queen whom he had previously deposed. It was also released as Queen's Affair....
(1934), Peg of Old Drury
Peg of Old Drury
Peg of Old Drury is a 1935 British historical film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Cedric Hardwicke and Margaretta Scott. The film is a biopic of eighteenth century Irish actress Peg Woffington. It was based on the play Masks and Faces by Charles Reade and Tom Taylor.-Cast:*...
(1935), and the screen biography of Queen Victoria, Victoria the Great
Victoria the Great
Victoria the Great is a 1937 British historical film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Anton Walbrook and Walter Rilla. The film biography of Queen Victoria concentrating initially on the early years of her reign with her marriage to Prince Albert and her subsequent rule after...
, together with its sequel, Sixty Glorious Years
Sixty Glorious Years
Sixty Glorious Years is a 1938 British film directed by Herbert Wilcox. The film is a sequel to the 1937 film Victoria the Great.The film is also known as Queen of Destiny in the US.- Cast :*Anna Neagle as Queen Victoria...
. Wilcox's 1932 film The Blue Danube
The Blue Danube (film)
The Blue Danube is a 1932 British romance film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Brigitte Helm, Joseph Schildkraut and Desmond Jeans. Its plot, based on a short story by Doris Zinkeisen, concerns a Hungarian gypsy who leaves his girlfriend for a countess, but soon begins to suffer heartache....
was based on a short story by Zinkeisen. British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
director James Whale
James Whale
James Whale was an English film director, theatre director and actor. He is best remembered for his work in the horror film genre, having directed such classics as Frankenstein , The Old Dark House , The Invisible Man and Bride of Frankenstein...
specifically directed Zinkeisen to design the costumes for the only American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
film she ever worked on, the 1936 screen version of Show Boat
Show Boat
Show Boat is a musical in two acts with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It was originally produced in New York in 1927 and in London in 1928, and was based on the 1926 novel of the same name by Edna Ferber. The plot chronicles the lives of those living and working...
. It remains today the most popular and highly regarded film that Zinkeisen ever worked on. In 1938 she wrote Designing for the Stage, a book regarded by Sue Harper, Professor of Film History, as an "influential innovation". According to Harper, Zinkeisen described how she "valued visual flair and 'fantastic treatment' above all", that she thought theatrical and film performances should be led by the mise-en-scène and that audiences were unconsciously able to "decode complex visual details". In 1955, Zinkeisen created Laurence Olivier's make-up for the Richard III film
Richard III (1955 film)
Richard III is a 1955 British film adaptation of William Shakespeare's historical play of the same name, also incorporating elements from his Henry VI, Part 3. It was directed and produced by Sir Laurence Olivier, who also played the lead role. The cast includes many noted Shakespearean actors,...
.
World War II, nurse and war artist
During World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Zinkeisen joined the St John Ambulance Brigade and worked as a nurse in London helping wartime Blitz
The Blitz
The Blitz was the sustained strategic bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. The city of London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights and many towns and cities across the country followed...
casualties having first trained as a Voluntary Aid Detachment
Voluntary Aid Detachment
The Voluntary Aid Detachment was a voluntary organisation providing field nursing services, mainly in hospitals, in the United Kingdom and various other countries in the British Empire. The organisation's most important periods of operation were during World War I and World War II.The...
(VAD) nurse during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. She worked in the casualty department in St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington
Paddington
Paddington is a district within the City of Westminster, in central London, England. Formerly a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965...
. Zinkeisen worked in the casualty department in the mornings and painted in the afternoons, recording the events of the day.
Following the liberation of Europe in 1945, Zinkeisen was commissioned by the War Artists Advisory Committee as a war artist
War artist
A war artist depicts some aspect of war through art; this might be a pictorial record or it might commemorate how "war shapes lives." War artists have explored a visual and sensory dimension of war which is often absent in written histories or other accounts of warfare.- Definition and context:A...
for the North West Europe Commission of the Joint War Organisation of the British Red Cross Society
British Red Cross
The British Red Cross Society is the United Kingdom branch of the worldwide impartial humanitarian organisation the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The society was formed in 1870, and is a registered charity with over 31,000 volunteers and 2,600 staff. At the heart of their work...
and the Order of St John (JWO). As the organisation's staff and resources moved into newly liberated areas, Zinkeisen's role as a war artist was to record the commission's activities. Based in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
at the commission's headquarters she recorded the commission's post-war relief work in north west Europe including the rehabilitation and repatriation of prisoners of war and civilian internees. Zinkeisen traveled by lorry or by air (from a nearby RAF base) throughout north-west Europe making sketches which she brought back to her studio in the commission's headquarters for further work.
Her work as a war artist included three days at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
Bergen-Belsen was a Nazi concentration camp in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle...
in April 1945, immediately after its liberation. Zinkeisen was one of a small number of artists who produced pictures of Bergen-Belsen in the months following its liberation. Other artists included Leslie Cole, Mary Kessell, Sargeant Eric Taylor (one of the camp's liberators) and Mervyn Peake
Mervyn Peake
Mervyn Laurence Peake was an English writer, artist, poet and illustrator. He is best known for what are usually referred to as the Gormenghast books. They are sometimes compared to the work of his older contemporary J. R. R...
. Her painting Human Laundry shows German orderlies washing camp inmates before they go to hospital. Thomas Sutcliffe, columnist for The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
described the painting as "flatly representational", "as uninflected as a travel poster", showing "brutalisers obliged to become carers, victims turned to patients". By the time Zinkeisen had become a war artist her palette had already darkened from the colours of her society paintings. Her war paintings use muted greys, browns and ochres like contemporaries such as Eric Ravilious
Eric Ravilious
Eric William Ravilious was an English painter, designer, book illustrator and wood engraver.-Career:Ravilious studied at Eastbourne School of Art, and at the Royal College of Art, where he studied under Paul Nash and became close friends with Edward Bawden.He began his working life as a muralist,...
and Stanley Spencer
Stanley Spencer
Sir Stanley Spencer was an English painter. Much of his work depicts Biblical scenes, from miracles to Crucifixion, happening not in the Holy Land but in the small Thames-side village where he was born and spent most of his life...
.
Paintings from Zinkeisen's time as a war artist are held by the Red Cross museum and archives, the museum of the Order of St John and the Imperial War Museum.
Zinkeisen wrote to her husband while she was at Belsen. Her son, Murray Johnstone, described the letters:
After the war
After the war, Zinkeisen continued to work in London as a theatrical designer and held occasional exhibitions of her paintings.Portraits by Harold Cazneaux
Harold CazneauxHarold Cazneaux
Harold Cazneaux was and Australian pictorialist photographer; a pioneer whose style had an indelible impact on the development of Australian photographic history. In 1916 he was a founder of the Pictorialist Sydney Camera Circle...
produced three photographic portraits of Zinkeisen in 1929 in his role as chief photographer for The Home magazine; Doris Zinkeisen: New Idea portrait with patterned background, Doris Zinkeisen: New Idea portrait with leaf background and Doris Zinkeisen with her brushes.
Doris Zinkeisen: New Idea portrait with leaf background was the first photographic cover for The Home which was launched in Sydney in 1920 and modelled on the American magazines Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (American magazine 1913-1936)
Vanity Fair was an American society magazine published from 1913-1936. It was highly successful until the Great Depression led to it becoming unprofitable, and it was merged into Vogue magazine in 1936.-History:...
and House & Garden
House & Garden (magazine)
House & Garden was an American shelter magazine published by Condé Nast Publications that focused on interior design, entertaining, and gardening....
. Zinkeisen was said to have epitomised the "New Feminine Beauty" described by The Home in 1929 as "stark simplicity of line, of corners, angles, slimness, sharpness … twenty years ago we were born curvy and now we are born straight." The leaf background was painted by the Australian artist Adrian Feint
Adrian Feint
Adrian Feint was an Australian artist born in Narrandera, NSW and who worked in various media but is noted for his bookplate designs....
. The photographs are part of the Art Gallery of New South Wales' Cazneaux collection.
Personal life
In 1922, while working with Nigel Playfair, Zinkeisen met James WhaleJames Whale
James Whale was an English film director, theatre director and actor. He is best remembered for his work in the horror film genre, having directed such classics as Frankenstein , The Old Dark House , The Invisible Man and Bride of Frankenstein...
. The two were considered a couple for some two years, despite Whale's living as an openly gay man. The couple was reportedly engaged in 1924 but by 1925 the engagement was off. Zinkeisen married Grahame Johnstone, a naval officer in 1927 and had twin daughters in June 1928, the children's book illustrators Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone
Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone
Janet Grahame Johnstone and Anne Grahame Johnstone were twin sisters and British children's book illustrators best known for their delicate, detailed prolific artwork and for illustrating Dodie Smith's classic book The Hundred and One Dalmatians.-Early life:The twins were born in 1928 to...
and a son, Murray Johnstone. Grahame Johnstone died in 1946 and Zinkeisen's twin girls then lived with their mother moving with her to Suffolk in 1966. Zinkeisen outlived her daughter Janet who died in an accident in 1979.
Doris Zinkeisen died on 3 January 1991, in Badingham, Suffolk, aged 92.
External links
- The Zinkeisen Exhibition - Paul Mayhew Fine Art
- Paintings by Doris Zinkeisen (1898-1991) British Red CrossBritish Red CrossThe British Red Cross Society is the United Kingdom branch of the worldwide impartial humanitarian organisation the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The society was formed in 1870, and is a registered charity with over 31,000 volunteers and 2,600 staff. At the heart of their work...
- "Personality meet Doris Zinkeisen" - British Pathé newsreel, 1946-09-09