Photoshop had not been invented, but most female bodies in Victorian art were effectively airbrushed – usually painted by men as idealised objects of beauty.

Annie Swynnerton saw things differently, and blazed a trail for female artists.

When she was elected to the most exclusive society in British art, the Royal Academy (RA), it was a male-only club.

It was 1922 and she was the first woman to join since the Academy’s foundation 154 years earlier.

In fact, it had taken the RA so long to let Swynnerton in that she was 77 by the time she was admitted – and most men relinquished their positions at the age of 75.  More