Descended from a Flemish refugee who had settled in Scotland two centuries before, Anna Zinkeisen was born in Killcreggan on the Clyde estuary. By the age of 15, she had won a scholarship to the Royal Academy where she studied sculpture under Sims, Clausen and Philpot, winning silver and bronze medals and exhibiting from 1919. She went on to design for Wedgwood, and she retained an interest in 3D plastic form throughout her painting life. In 1935, she and her sister Doris were commissioned to paint the murals in the Verandah Grill of the Queen Mary, and Anna also painted murals for the Queen Elizabeth. In 1941, during the Second World War, the sisters were both employed as War Artists, making studies of war injuries for pathologists. Anna painted still lifes from early in her career but in April 1962 an exhibition of her flower paintings was held at the Royal Society of British Artists in the Mall. The New Daily described the paintings as 'brilliant performances, lucid, bold, designed with astonishing accuracy, strength and assurance … every shade of colour blazes from Anna Zinkeisen's flower pieces: here are the lily and the rose, the camellia, and a great sheaf of gorgeous autumn flowers.'