Style Imitating Art | The Sense of Sight by Annie Louisa Swynnerton

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge, and Marsha of Marsha in the Middle. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as presenter, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the presenter by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the presenter will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join either! In fact, you don’t even have to join but you can still use the art to inspire an outfit just for the sake of trying something different. If you want to share your inspired outfit, we invite you do so on Instagram or any other social media platform that you prefer. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Shelbee, or Marsha or use #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

This Week’s Presenter

Marsha chose our artwork for this round. Since March is Women’s History Month and our style roundup will be just prior to the start of the month, she wanted to feature a female artist. This artist, who was part of the High Pre-Raphaelite movement, is a great choice as a follow up to last week’s Pre-Raphaelite artist. 

The Artwork

The Sense of Sight by Annie Louisa Swynnerton

About the Artist: Annie Louisa Swynnerton

One of seven daughters, Anna Louisa Robinson was born on February 26, 1844, in Hulme, Manchester, England, to Francis Robinson, a solicitor, and Ann Sanderson. As a young girl, Annie sold watercolors to supplement her family’s income during difficult financial times.

In 1871, she began her formal art training at the Manchester School of Art where she won a gold prize and a scholarship for an oil and watercolor painting. Two of her sisters, Julia and Emily, were also prize winning students at the Manchester School of Art. Annie then studied in Rome with her friend and fellow artist, Susan Isabel Dacre, from 1874 to 1876, followed by studies at the Académie Julian in Paris from 1877 to 1880. In 1880, she moved back to Manchester and was in living in London by 1882.

While living in Rome, Anna met sculptor Joseph William Swynnerton from the Isle of Man. The couple married in 1883 and primarily resided in Rome but maintained a studio in Shepherd’s Bush, London. There is no mention of the Swynnertons having children but they seemed to have a happy marriage until Joseph’s death in 1910 at the age of 62.

Following the death of her husband, Annie split her time between Rome and Chelsea, London, before settling in Hayling Island, England, where she died on October 24, 1933, at the age of 89. In her later years, Annie’s eyesight began to fail but she continued to paint until the end of her life. At the time of her death, she left a studio filled with 170 works. All but 12 were unfinished and unframed. The collection was auctioned at Christie’s in London the following year for £601 (equivalent to £40,000 today).

Annie Swynnerton was influenced by many contemporary artists of her time. Her portraits, figures, symbolist works, and landscapes included elements of Neoclassicism, Pre-Raphaelitism and Impressionism. Throughout her career, Annie and her friend Isabel Dacre shared a studio where they founded the Manchester Society of Women Painters. In 1895, Annie became the second woman ever to sit on the Liverpool Autumn Exhibition hanging committee. As an active supporter of the women’s suffrage movement, Annie was a signatory on the 1889 National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies’ Declaration in Favour of Women’s Suffrage. In 1922, with the help of fellow artist John Singer Sargent, 78 year old Annie Swynnerton became the first woman to be elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in its 154 year history. Her artwork has been exhibited and can still be found today in museums all over the world.

About the Art: “The Sense of Sight”

“The Sense of Sight” is an 1895 oil painting on canvas by British artist Annie Swynnerton. It measures 34.37 (87.3 cm) inches by 39.76 inches (100.99 cm) and has belonged to the permanent collection of the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool since its donation in 1896 by original owner Charles J. Proctor.

The description from the museum website summarizes the painting much better than I can.

“Swynnerton was a leading artist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, specialising in Symbolist pictures. Here, Swynnerton plays between physical and spiritual senses of sight. The young woman with feathered wings looks up, enraptured, at something out of our view. A fleck of golden light is reflected in her eyes. It is unclear whether she is looking at something natural or supernatural.

Swynnerton wrote a letter to the Walker Art Gallery about this painting. She describes explaining the meaning of the painting to the previous owner, Charles Proctor, who had lost most of his vision.”

Being visually impaired myself, I appreciate the power of this piece. While we do have the benefit of technology to improve declining vision, if I lose my glasses, I lose myself. Without the assistance of corrective lenses, all I can see is a big blur of colors and fuzzy shapes with no distinguishing features whatsoever. Any time my children travel far from home, I stress to them the importance of having a second pair of shoes and a second pair glasses. You never want to get caught somewhere barefoot and/or blind. I learned those lessons the hard way so I really hope they heed my advice!

Helpful Links

• Annie Louisa Swynnerton: The Sense of Sight (The Eclectic Light Company)
• Annie Swynnerton (Wikipedia)
• The Sense of Sight (Wikimedia Commons)
• ANNIE LOUISA SWYNNERTON and SUSAN ISABEL DACRE (1844-1933)
• The Kissed Mouth: Annie Louisa Swynnerton
• National Museums Liverpool: The Sense of Sight

About My Outfit

Since the color palette of the painting is so similar to our previous artwork, I could have worn the same outfit and it would have worked but that’s not how I roll, you know. Plus I had so many wardrobe choices in these colors that I could easily have styled a dozen appropriate outfits. My last SIA outfit consisted of old pieces that have been hanging around my closet for years while this outfit is a combination of mostly new pieces.

To capture the dominant colors of green and orange from the painting, I wore a new gauzy olive green sleeveless sun dress with a new orange kimono robe. I picked up both pieces on summer clearance in the early fall but I never thought to pair them together until this painting prompted me.

Because they are summer pieces and it clearly is still very much winter here, I added a lightweight long sleeved olive green duster between the dress and robe. My new green and brown eel skin cowgirl boots were the perfect colors to coordinate with the dress and robe although they are begging me to stop taking them out in the snow! If only the snow would just go away, I would be a much happier cowgirl.

Once I had the green and orange stuff put together, I needed to bring in some more elements to represent other details of the painting. To represent the woman’s wings and bring in some white as another dominant color from the artwork, I added an old white scarf with a butterfly print. I know butterflies are not angels, but they do both have wings so I went with it. I also wore big feather earrings to represent the wings as well.

After I completed my outfit assemblage, I realized that I didn’t include anything blue for the sky so I grabbed my old navy blue cloche hat. I used a light green neckerchief as a hat band and attached an old cameo brooch for extra interest. Although there is no other blue in my outfit, the dark navy color of my hat coordinates with the bits of black in my scarf print.

I was really, really pleased with the end result of this challenge. It is a combination of pieces that I would have never thought to wear together but with the art prompt I created something that I will probably wear over and over again! If you have never joined us for one of these Style Imitating Art challenges, I encourage you to give it a try. You might be surprised by the unexpected versatility of your wardrobe when you look at it from a different perspective.

I hope you all enjoyed this round of Style Imitating Art. Be sure to check out how Marsha and Salazar have styled their outfits inspired by this painting. If you want to play along and create your own art inspired outfit, please submit your photos to Marsha (mlrbanks57@gmail.com) by 10:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday, February 24, 2026, and she will feature your outfit in her style gallery on Wednesday, February 25, 2026.

Until then, happy styling! 

Keeping it on the edge, 

Shelbee