Anna Katrina Zinkeisen

This rare 1930s advertising poster was commissioned by London Transport to advertise the 1934 FA Cup Final match between Portsmouth and Manchester City (Man City beat Portsmouth 2-1). The unusual 20 x 15in ('crown') size tells us that this is not one of the standard panel posters printed for display inside buses and Tube carriages. Instead, this may have been intended for display on station walls or elsewhere around town. The limited print runs and time-sensitive nature of these posters makes them inherently rare on the open market.

The illustrator, Anna Zinkeisen, was a Scottish painter and portraitist who studied at Harrow and then won a scholarship to the Royal Academy Schools. As a young, female artist, she often faced opposition from the established art world during the early stage of her career, but her talent was unmissable. Commissions from Wedgwood, Cunard, and London Transport in the 1920s and early 1930s allowed Zinkeisen to establish herself as a working artist and make a name in the growing field of industrial art. During the Second World War she worked as a casualty nurse at St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington where she spent much of her free time painting what she had witnessed in the hospital, including scenes of surgeons in the operating theatre and portraits of patients injured during air raids. Her work was included in the painting event at the 1948 Olympics in London.

Zinkeisen's London Transport posters include advertisements for the 1934 Lord Mayor's Show, Trooping the Colour, the Rugby League Cup Final, the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race, Derby Day at Epsom, and Wimbledon. London Transport under Frank Pick (Chief Executive from 1933-1940) was ahead of its time in promoting the work of female artists, especially poster artists. Other leading female artists who produced work for London Transport included Heather "Herry" Perry, Mabel Lucie Attwell, Laura Knight, Enid Marx, Mary Koop, and Zandra Rhodes.

Printed colour. [SPORTSp3770]