Mary Constance Vivian Rodd, Lady Rennell (''née'' Smith; 5 November 1901 – 31 May 1981) was an English landscape artist working mainly in pencil, chalk, and oils.

Life and career

Rennell was born in London, the third of seven children daughter of the first Lord Bicester and Lady Sybil McDonnell. The family took frequent holidays to

Glenarm Castle Glenarm Castle, Glenarm, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, is the ancestral home of the Earl of Antrim. History There has been a castle at Glenarm since the 13th century, where it resides at the heart of one of Northern Ireland's oldest estates ...

, home of her maternal grandparents,

William McDonnell, 6th Earl of Antrim William is a masculine given name of Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era. It is ...

and

Louisa McDonnell, Countess of Antrim Louisa Jane McDonnell, Countess of Antrim, VA (''née'' Grey; 15 February 1855 – 2 April 1949) was a British noblewoman and courtier. Biography Lady Antrim was born at St James's Palace, the daughter of Gen. Hon. Charles Grey (a son of the ...

. She was educated at home by private tutors, but at 17 she joined the

Slade School of Fine 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 ...

as a part-time student while also, for several months, working as a ward maid for the war wounded before the Armistice on 11 November 1918. After leaving art school she shared a studio with Diana Walton in Kennington, London. In the 1930s, Rennell was introduced to the

Oxford Group The Oxford Group was a Christian organization founded by American Lutheran minister Frank Buchman in 1921, originally under the name First Century Christian Fellowship. Buchman believed that fear and selfishness were the root of all problems. ...

by a friend of her mother. This later became the Moral Re-armament Association (MRA) of which Rennell was an active participant for 18 years. In 1940, Rennell took her children to America to avoid the impact of World War II on London. Before returning to Britain, in 1943, she held a one-woman show of drawings in New York. From 1952 onwards she travelled extensively. In Australia she held one-woman shows in both Perth and Melbourne in 1968. She also exhibited frequently in London at 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 ...

, The Royal Society of Portrait Painters and 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 ...

. Originally Rennell mostly painted landscapes in oils but later turned to drawing in ink on rice paper. There are seven works by Rennell in the

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

's prints and drawings collection. The

Arts Council of Wales The Arts Council of Wales (ACW; ) is a Welsh Government-sponsored body, responsible for funding and developing the arts in Wales. Established within the Arts Council of Great Britain in 1946, as the Welsh Arts Council (), its English name w ...

and the

National Library of Wales The National Library of Wales (, ) in Aberystwyth is the national legal deposit library of Wales and is one of the Welsh Government sponsored bodies. It is the biggest library in Wales, holding over 6.5 million books and periodicals, and the l ...

Aberystwyth Aberystwyth (; ) is a University town, university and seaside town and a community (Wales), community in Ceredigion, Wales. It is the largest town in Ceredigion and from Aberaeron, the county's other administrative centre. In 2021, the popula ...

also hold examples of her work.

Personal life

In 1928, Rennell married Francis Rodd (1895–1978), an explorer, diplomat and author. His position allowed the couple to travel around the world. The couple had four daughters. Rennell's experience with Moral Re-armament led to her conversion to Catholicism in 1952. In 1978, she became an oblate of

St Benedict Benedict of Nursia (; ; 2 March 480 – 21 March 547), often known as Saint Benedict, was a Christian monk. He is famed in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Churches, the Anglican Communion, and Old Catholic Ch ...

attached to

Stanbrook Abbey Stanbrook Abbey is a Catholic contemplative Benedictine Monastery with the status of an abbey, located at Wass, North Yorkshire, England. The community was founded in 1625 at Cambrai in Flanders (then part of the Spanish Netherlands, now in ...

(then in

Callow End Callow End is a constituent village of the civil parish of Powick in the Malvern Hills District of Worcestershire, England. It is located on the B4424 road about to the south of its junction with the main A449 Malvern to Worcester road. The R ...

, Worcester). She died in Oxford, aged 79.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rennell, Mary 1901 births 1981 deaths Artists from London 20th-century English painters Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art British baronesses Converts to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism Daughters of barons 20th-century English women painters