Maud Tindal Atkinson Biography

Amy Maud Tindal Atkinson (1875-1954) was an English female artist, active in the 20th century, who exhibited paintings at the Royal Academy. 

Atkinson was born at Shortlands, near Bromley in Kent, to Henry Tindal Atkinson, a county judge and his wife Marion Lewin. She had three sisters Ethel, Enid and Doris, and one brother Edward, later Sir Edward Hale Tindal Atkinson, who served as the Director of Public Prosecutions from 1930 to 1944. 

Atkinson studied at the Art Department of Kings College for Women in Kensington under Byam Shaw. In 1906, Byam Shaw exhibited a full-length watercolour portrait of her at the Royal Academy, entitled "Maud, Daughter of His Honour Judge Tindal Atkinson." 

In 1915, Atkinson painted 'Ariel', a character from Shakespeare's The Tempest. The work was once with the Maas Gallery in London and is now in Sam Elliott's collection. It has been reproduced commercially on several book jackets, including "The Fairyland Companion" and "The Fairy Garden" by Beatrice Phillpotts.

'The New Voice', a painting by Byam Shaw, was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1909. In it, Atkinson appears naked to the waist. It is a strikingly eroticised portrayal unintentionally reminiscent of soft pornography of the Edwardian era, and indicates that she was by no means bound by Edwardian convention.

Atkinson was a member of The Royal Society of Miniaturists in London and illustrated several children's books, including 'The Land of Nice New Clothes' (1921) by E.H. Paine, 'Lady Ann's Fairy Tales' (1914) by Catherine Milnes Gaskell, 'My Favourite Nursery Rhymes' (1922) by S.J. Looker, and 'Spindrift: Five Songs' by May H. Brahe and Madge Dickson (1921).

Atkinson did not marry or have children.