Marion Wallace Dunlop (1864-1942)

Marion Wallace-Dunlop was a portrait painter, figurative artist, illustrator and ardent feminist. While studying at the Slade School of Fine Art, recognition of her talent resulted in the commissioning, (in 1899), of two illustrated books: Fairies, Elves and Flower Babies and The Magic Fruit Garden. She exhibited with the Paris Salon, the RA (1903, 1905, 1906) and the RGI (1903). Fiercely devoted to the fight for women’s rights, she dedicated much of her career, and life, to the suffrage movement. After joining the Women’s Social and Political Union in 1908 she was soon arrested for ‘obstruction’, and was the first suffragette to go on hunger strike while imprisoned in 1909. She also directed the creation of banners, tapestries and prints to call for women’s right to vote, particularly the ‘Women’s Coronation Procession’ in 1911.