Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Charretie, Anna Maria
CHARRETIE, ANNA MARIA (1819–1875), miniature and oil painter, was born at Vauxhall on 5 May 1819. Her father, Mr. Kenwell, was an architect and surveyor. At the age of thirteen, on quitting school, she began to study drawing under Valentine Bartholomew [q. v.] Her earliest effort in art was in flower-painting, and she exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy in 1843. In 1841 Miss Kenwell married Captain John Charretie, of the Hon. East India Company's service. She had at the Royal Academy in 1852 two portraits in oil-colours, which were named 'Emily' and 'Sara.' In 1868 her husband died, when Mrs. Charretie, thrown entirely on her own resources, took to the serious study of oil-painting, and made copies of several pictures in the National Gallery, London. She died suddenly from heart disease at her residence, Horton Cottage, Campden Hill, Kensington, on 5 Oct. 1875. In the course of her artistic career Mrs. Charretie sent to the Royal Academy forty miniatures, &c.; to the British Institution four; and thirty-two to Suffolk Street. She was also a constant exhibitor at the Dudley Gallery and frequently in the provinces. In 1870 appeared 'Lady Betty' and 'A Stone in her Shoe;' in 1871, 'Lady Teazle, behind the Screen;' in 1878, 'Lady Betty's Maid;' and 'Mistress of herself tho' China fall,' her last work, in 1875.
[Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists, 1878; Clayton's English Female Artists, 1876; Graves's Dictionary of Artists, 1884.]