Emmy Gerarda Mary Dinkel-Keet ( Keet; 5 September 1908 – 27 January 2003) was a Dutch artist, known for her drawings and watercolour paintings, who spent the majority of her career in Britain.

Biography

Born in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

in 1908, Dinkel-Keet and her family moved to England during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Settling in Essex, Dinkel-Keet won a scholarship to the Southend College of Art, where she studied between 1927 and 1930. From 1930 to 1933, Dinkel-Keet was a student at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...

in London where her tutors included both

Eric Ravilious Eric William Ravilious (22 July 1903 – 2 September 1942) was a British painter, designer, book illustrator and wood-engraver. He grew up in Sussex, and is particularly known for his watercolours of the South Downs and other English landsca ...

and

Edward Bawden Edward Bawden, (10 March 1903 – 21 November 1989) was an English painter, illustrator and graphic artist, known for his prints, book covers, posters, and garden metalwork furniture. Bawden taught at the Royal College of Art, where he had be ...

. After graduating from the Royal College, Dinkel-Keet spent time in Hungary studying peasant art and design, including embroidery. On returning to Britain she took a series of teaching posts, initially with the

London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...

, then at

Sherborne School for Girls Sherborne Girls, formally known as Sherborne School for Girls, is an independent day and boarding school for girls, located in Sherborne, North Dorset, England. There were 485 pupils attending in 2019–2020, with over 90 per cent of them livin ...

and from 1939 at the College of Art in

Great Malvern Great Malvern is an area of the spa town of Malvern, Worcestershire, England. It lies at the foot of the Malvern Hills, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, on the eastern flanks of the Worcestershire Beacon and North Hill, and is ...

. After she married the artist Ernest Dinkel, the couple moved to Scotland where Dinkel-Keet took further teaching posts after raising a family. Throughout her career she was a regular exhibitor at the

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

in London and, later, with the

Royal Scottish Academy The Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) is the country’s national academy of art. It promotes contemporary Scottish art. The Academy was founded in 1826 by eleven artists meeting in Edinburgh. Originally named the Scottish Academy, it became the ...

. After Ernest Dinkel retired from his post at the

Edinburgh College of Art Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is one of eleven schools in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Tracing its history back to 1760, it provides higher education in art and design, architecture, histor ...

, the couple moved to

Bussage Bussage is a village in Gloucestershire, England in the district of Stroud. The village was made famous in the 1970s after a sighting of the actor Paul Newman, who was rumoured to be looking for a home in the area. Geography There is an olde ...

near

Stroud Stroud is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021. Below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the Five ...

in Gloucestershire where Dinkel-Keet spent more time on her art. She illustrated a number of books often creating fine illustrations using a paint brush with only a single hair. In 1984 Dinkel-Keet and her husband had a joint exhibition at Stroud and in 1987 Dinkel-Keet was elected a member of the

Royal West of England Academy The Royal West of England Academy (RWA) is Bristol's oldest art gallery, located in Clifton, Bristol, near the junction of Queens Road and Whiteladies Road. Situated in a Grade 2* listed building, it hosts five galleries and an exhibition program ...

. In 1991, a volume of her paintings and drawings, ''Dream Children: Collected Works of Emmy Dinkel-Keet'' was published.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dinkel-Keet, Emmy 1908 births 2003 deaths 20th-century Dutch women artists Alumni of the Royal College of Art British art teachers Artists from The Hague Dutch emigrants to England Dutch women painters Dutch embroiderers