Mabel Annesley

Lady Mabel Marguerite Annesley HRUA (25 February 1881 – 19 June 1959) was a wood-engraver and watercolour painter. Her work is in many collections, including the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the National Gallery of Canada and the Museum of New Zealand. She exhibited in the Festival of Britain in 1952.

Early life and family She was born on 25 February 1881, at Annesley Lodge, Regent's Park, London, the daughter of Hugh Annesley, 5th Earl Annesley (1831–1908), lieutenant-colonel in the Scots Fusilier Guards and landowner, and his first wife, Mabel Wilhelmina Frances Markham, Countess Annesley (1858–1891). Her mother was the greatgranddaughter of Sir Francis Grant, eminent Victorian portrait painter and president of the Royal Academy. Her half-sister, Lady Constance Malleson was a writer, actress, and mistress of Bertrand Russell.

She married Gerald Sowerby (1878–1913) in 1904. Sowerby was flag lieutenant to Admiral Prince Louis of Battenberg and flag commander to the commander-in-chief, Portsmouth. The couple had one son, Gerald Francis Sowerby (later Annesley). Her husband died in 1913, and a year later she inherited Castlewellan Castle after the death of her brother Francis.

Gerald Francis Sowerby (5 November 1904 – April 1992) married firstly Lady Elizabeth Jocelyn, daughter of the Earl of Roden, secondly Mary Macdonald, and thirdly Elizabeth Cromwell.

Artistic career At the age of about forty she learnt the technique of wood engraving at the Central School in London under the tutelage of Noel Rooke from 1920 to 1921. She was soon regarded as one of its three or four leading exponents in Britain along with artists like Gwen Raverat and Robert Gibbings. and for Duckworths County Down Songs (1924) and Apollo in Mourne (1926) by the Ulsterman Richard Rowley. When she developed arthritis in later life, employing lino in place of boxwood to continue working. In it she says that Paul Nash and David Jones were particular influences. A memorial show of her work was held at the Whitworth Art Gallery in 1960.

Arms