Marianne Stokes (1855–1927)

Marianne Stokes (1855–1927)

Born Marianne Preindlsberger, was an Austrian painter. She settled in England after her marriage to Adrian Scott Stokes. Stokes was considered one of the leading artists in the Victorian England. 

Preindlsberger was born in Graz, Styria. She first studied in Munich under Lindenschmidt and having been awarded a scholarship for her first picture, Muttergluck, she worked in France under Pascal Adolphe Jean Dagnan-Bouveret (1852–1929), Colin and Gustave Courtois (1853–1923).

She painted in the countryside and Paris, and, as with many other young painters, fell under the spell of the rustic naturalist Jules Bastien-Lepage. Her style continued to show his influence even when her subject matter changed from rustic to medieval romantic and biblical themes. While in France she met the Finnish painter Helene Schjerfbeck, in whose company she visited Pont-Aven in 1883. After abandoning oils, and inspired by the Pre-Raphaelite movement, she painted flat compositions in tempera and gesso, her paintings giving the impression of being frescoes on plaster surfaces. She was an Associate of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours.