Annie Louisa Swynnerton, ARA (née Robinson; 26 February 1844 – 24 October 1933) was a British painter best known for her portrait and symbolist works.

[1] She studied at Manchester School of Art and at the Académie Julian, before basing herself in the artistic community in Rome with her husband, the monumental sculptor Joseph Swynnerton.

John Singer Sargent appreciated her work and helped her to become the first elected woman member at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1922.

Annie was a close friend of leading suffragists of the day, notably the Pankhurst family.

Her drawing was solid, and she had a sculptural grasp of form allied to fresh, broken colour displaying affinities with Impressionism.

[2] The Magazine of Art described one of her works, "[A] highly imaginative design by [Swynnerton] is Mater Triumphalis.

The limbs of the figure are somewhat heavy in outline, whilst there is a certain metallic appearance in the colouring that is quite apart from the idea of the flowing life-blood in a human body.

She painted portraits of people close to the Garretts, including Henry James and Rev.

John Singer Sargent made a painting of Swynnerton and Smyth's sister, Mrs. Charles Hunter.

[6] She met sculptor Joseph William Swynnerton, from the Isle of Man, possibly while the two were both living in Rome.

[11] Following her husband's death, she lived in Chelsea, London and Rome, before finally settling on Hayling Island, England.

[6] Swynnerton was described as follows: She was a talented artist and an accomplished woman, though scarcely one of whom it could be said she possessed a charm of manner.