Artist/Maker: Florence A. Claxton - Aberystwyth University School of Art Museums and Galleries

Illustrator and painter. Daughter of painter Marshall Claxton and elder sister of illustrator Adelaide Claxton. Spent some time at Carey’s School of Art, but was also taught by her father. Travelled with the family to Australia, India and Egypt, 1850-7. Exhibited her painting Scenes from the Life of a Female Artist with the Society of Women Artists in 1858 and continued to support women’s rights throughout her career. She wrote and illustrated many humorous commentaries on contemporary life and the situation of women. Her best-known work, The Choice of Paris: An Idyll, c.1860, satirises the work of the Pre-Raphaelites with caricatures of the main figures of the movement. The watercolour was exhibited at the Portland Gallery and reproduced in the Illustrated London News in 1860. Produced many drawings and engravings for books, journals and magazines, often working in collaboration with her sister. Married in 1868 and produced less work, although in 1871 her Adventures of a Woman in Search of Her Rights was published, which features 100 of her witty illustrations