Fanny McIan (c. 1814 – 7 April 1897) was an English artist who specialized in Scottish historical scenes.
As the first superintendent of London's Female School of Design, she promoted British women's art education in the mid-nineteenth century.
The exact date of her birth is not known, but she was about sixteen years old when she eloped with actor and painter R. R. McIan in 1831.
The school was launched to train respectable young women in need of employment to be porcelain painters and otherwise enter industrial careers, but McIan's curriculum included more fine arts subjects (oil painting, wood engraving), and attracted comfortable middle-class students as well.
Charles Dickens was a correspondent of McIan's,[7] and agreed with her complaints that the original building and its location were ill-suited for art education.