Annie Dorrington

Annie Dorrington (19 March 1866 – 21 April 1926) was an Australian artist who was known for her wildflower paintings and watercolours. She is also one of the designers of the Australian flag. Early life On 19 March 1866, Annie Whistler was born at Litchfield Ashe, near Southampton, England. She was the second of nine children of Richard Whistler and his wife Sarah Mills (née Vines); she had six sisters and two brothers. Richard was a tenant farmer on the Foliejon Estate and farm in Winkfield, Berkshire; the family claimed to be related to the artist James McNeill Whistler, but this has not been proven. The farm adjoined Windsor Great Park, and Annie and her sisters sometimes saw Queen Victoria being driven through the park. Annie began painting in childhood and she and her sisters enjoyed painting scenes on the banks of the Thames River. Richard Whistler died in 1887 and a bailiff named Charles Dorrington, who later became Annie's husband, came to manage the farm. When the Whistler sisters asked their mother the name of their prospective bailiff, she replied, "It could be Ahasuerus for all I know!" As a result, Charles Dorrington was known by the nickname 'Asu' from then on, and Annie would use 'Ahasuerus' as a pseudonym when she later entered Australia's national flag competition (see below). Several years after Richard's death, Sarah emigrated to Melbourne, Victoria, with all nine of her children. Charles Dorrington accompanied them, and in 1892 Charles and Annie were married in St. Alban's Church of England in Armadale, a suburb of Melbourne. Sarah had not wanted Annie to marry Dorrington and cut her off entirely as a result. Many years later, Annie's niece Kath Dowsing would recall that her name was never mentioned in the family. In 1895, Annie and Charles moved to Western Australia; they lived at Fremantle in 1897 before they moved to Perth in 1898. Charles worked for the Swan River Shipping Company in Perth until 1914, after which he became a shire clerk at Mundijong. The Dorringtons had no children. Art career It was after the Dorringtons moved to Perth that Annie became known as a painter who specialized in watercolours of Western Australian wildflowers. Her botanical paintings are for the most part moderately detailed and realistic, with some subjects painted in a more impressionistic style and with more vivid colours. The subjects are often sprays of flowers with their leaves, isolated against a plain background.