Florence Mary Anderson

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Florence Mary Anderson
Florence Mary Anderson (1889-1945), the children's illustrator and writer, was born in Greenock, Scotland in 1889, the fourth child of John, a wealthy sugar merchant, and his second wife Mary Matilda (née Matthews).

In 1908, at the age of 19, Florence Anderson applied to attend afternoon classes in drawing and painting at the Glasgow School of Art.  The formal art training she acquired in Glasgow provided Florence with a foundation on which she could develop her interpretative skills as an author and illustrator.  Having completed her studies at Glasgow, she won a scholarship for a year’s course in drawing and painting at Bradford College of Art and then, in 1912, another scholarship to the Slade School of Fine Art under the tutelage of Henry Tonks (1862-1937).

Amongst her notable works were 'The Secrets of the Flowers', 'The Cradleship' (1920) and 'The Land where Stories Grow' (1929).

In May 1914 a liaison with fellow Slade School student, Thomas Mackenzie, had resulted in the birth of her son, Murray Anderson Mackenzie.  Although Mackenzie and Anderson married in July 1925 at Hampstead Registry Office, they were divorced in October 1928 following his undenied adultery at a High Wycombe hotel with an unknown woman. The case caused so much of a scandal that it appeared on page 2 of the Daily Mirror on 20th April 1928.

From 1923 Anderson lived by the River Thames at Strand-on-the Green, Chiswick, where she belonged to the Chiswick Group of Artists and earned a living from her landscape paintings, portraits, teaching, and designing and selling greetings cards.  She visited the Swiss Alps on several occasions and exhibited her work in London galleries including the Beaux Arts Gallery in 1928.  Until almost the end of her career, Anderson was exclusively an illustrator of folklore and fairy tales.

She died on 21 July 1945.

Art historians and writers have frequently confused or conflated this artist with the illustrator and stage designer, Florence Mary "Molly" MacArthur (1893-1972), whose married name was Anderson, and whose illustrations are roughly contemporary with Anderson's.  However, MacArthur always seems to have used her maiden name professionally.

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See below to download images from the publications illustrated by Florence Mary Anderson. Click on each item for more information.

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