Honourable Mrs K A Vane painting at Fox Glacier, Westland.
Biography
Vane was born in Wainuiomata, the daughter of Gilbert Mair and Eleanor Katherine (née Sperry) Mair. She had an older brother, John Gilbert, who died in childhood.[2][5][6][7] Her mother, a noted portrait artist, died when she was three years old and she was raised by a Scottish nurse. She attended a private school, Misses Bews' Ladies College in Mt Eden, Auckland and also studied art. In 1912 she travelled to London, England and studied at the Royal College of Art and the Slade School of Fine Art.[1][8] During World War I she served as a nurse aide in France. After the war she travelled and painted extensively, exhibiting in London, Paris and Malta. During World War II she returned to New Zealand. She spent most of wartime in the city of Tauranga, where she voluntered for the Red Cross. Later, she would be honoured with a Queen's Service medal for 40 years of service to the organisation [9]. Vane would leave New Zealand after the war, but would return again in 1953, this time to retire.[2]
Untitled Landscape, by Kathleen Airini Vane, Webbs Auctioneers
In 1917 she married Ralph Frederick Vane, a son of Lord and Lady Barnard of Raby Castle, England. He died in 1928.[8]
References
^ ab"Vane, Kathleen Airini, 1891–1965". Vane, Kathleen Airini, 1891–1965 | Items | National Library of New Zealand | National Library of New Zealand. 1 January 1891. Retrieved 5 March 2022.
