French is renowned for her black and white ink and wash drawings which reveal the influence of Aubrey Beardsley. There are also hints of Gustave Klimt, one of the leaders of the Viennese Secessionist movement, which was closely allied to the circle of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Frances Macdonald and Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh. Her delicate technique worked well for the illustration of fairy tales and poems, often featuring women dressed in floral, floating garments, with idealised features that recalled the Pre-Raphaelite muses. Floral motifs played a large part of the artist's illustrative style, her own garden plants being a passion of hers.

Annie French, 1872 - 1965

Born in Glasgow, French studied at Glasgow School of Art under the legendary teacher Francis Newbury, who treated male and female students equally. Her contemporaries and friends included fellow artists Jessie M King of Kirkcudbright fame, and the designers Frances MacDonald and her sister Margaret, who was married to Charles Rennie Mackintosh. French's work was first exhibited in 1903, whilst still a student, at the Brussels Salon, later also exhibiting at the Royal Scottish Academy and the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Art. In 1909, French took up a post at the Glasgow School of Art teaching ceramic decoration.