Joan Eleanor Ayling, later Joan Eleanor Rees (16 September 1904 – 1 July 1993)Birth and death dates from National Portrait Gallery (UK); birth date confirmed in 1911 England Census, and the 1939 England and Wales Register, via Ancestry. However, Buckman's dictionary gives her year of birth as 1907. was a British artist, notable for etching and painting miniature portraits.

Early life and education

Ayling was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, the daughter of John Ayling and Frances Augusta Laura Law Ayling. Her father was a printer and justice of the peace, who was imprisoned for forgery in 1907. Her maternal grandfather Thomas Graves Law was an English priest and a librarian at Edinburgh's Signet Library; through him she was also descended from cleric

William Towry Law William Towry Law (16 June 1809 – 31 October 1886) a former Chancellor of the Diocese of Bath and Wells, who converted to Catholic Church, Catholicism in 1851. Early life He came from an old Westmorland family and was the youngest son of ...

, judge

Edward Law, 1st Baron Ellenborough Edward Law, 1st Baron Ellenborough (16 November 1750 – 13 December 1818), was an English judge. After serving as a member of parliament and Attorney General, he became Lord Chief Justice. Early life Law was born at Great Salkeld, in Cumber ...

, and politician Thomas Graves, 2nd Baron Graves. Ayling was educated in England, at St Mary's in

Mill Hill Mill Hill is a suburb in the London Borough of Barnet, England. It is situated around northwest of Charing Cross, close to the Hertfordshire border. It was in the Historic counties of England, historic county of Middlesex until 1965, when it b ...

near London and subsequently at

Kilburn Polytechnic The College of North West London (CNWL) is a large further education college in north-west London, England. It was established in 1991 by the merger between Willesden Technical College and Kilburn Polytechnic in the London Borough of Brent. Today ...

. Ayling studied at Birmingham School of Arts and Crafts and then at the

Slade School of Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

in London. She also took private lessions in

etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other type ...

techniques with F L Griggs.

Career

Ayling was known as a miniaturist. She exhibited a miniature at the

Salon des Artistes Francais The Salon (), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art event in the Western world. At the ...

in 1939. In 1952 she won a silver medal at the

Paris Salon The Salon (), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art event in the Western world. At the ...

and in 1957 was awarded a gold medal for her work from the same body. British art historian Raymond Lister considered her among "the best of all" miniaturists, and he included an example of her work in his 1953 book on the

silhouette A silhouette (, ) is the image of a person, animal, object or scene represented as a solid shape of a single colour, usually black, with its edges matching the outline of the subject. The interior of a silhouette is featureless, and the silhouett ...

. Ayling painted portraits of several notable individuals including

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, and public intellectual. He had influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, and various areas of analytic ...

Edgar Evans Petty Officer Edgar Evans (7 March 1876 – 17 February 1912) was a Welsh Royal Navy petty officer and member of the "Polar Party" in Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated ''Terra Nova'' Expedition to the South Pole in 1911–1912. This grou ...

, and a number of church leaders. As well as the Paris Salon, Ayling was a regular exhibitor at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

, the

Royal Society of British Artists The Royal Society of British Artists (RBA) is a British art body established in 1823 as the Society of British Artists, as an alternative to the Royal Academy. History The RBA commenced with twenty-seven members, and took until 1876 to reach fi ...

and at the

Walker Art Gallery The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England outside London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group. History The Walker Art Gallery's collection dates from 1819 ...

in Liverpool. Her work was included in the exhibition ''Sladey Ladies'', held at the Michael Parkin Gallery in 1986. She was a member of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers and served a term as the society's vice president. She lived for many years in the

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...

area of London.

Personal life

Ayling married Welsh physician Evan Robert Rees in 1936. Her husband died in 1981, and she died in 1993, at the age of 88.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ayling, Joan 1904 births 1993 deaths 20th-century British printmakers 20th-century Scottish painters Alumni of the Birmingham School of Art Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Artists from Edinburgh Scottish etchers 20th-century Scottish women painters Women etchers 20th-century etchers 20th-century British women painters