Nina Hamnett was a British painter and illustrator. She studied at the Pelham School of Art (1906-7), the London School of Art (1907-10) and at Marie Wassilieff’s Academy in Paris (1914) where Fernand Leger taught. Influenced by Fry and modern French art, Hamnett painted portraits, still-lifes, landscapes, café and pub scenes. Her declared ambition was ‘to paint psychological portraits that shall represent accurately the spirit of the age’. Hamnett excelled as a draughtsman. Her fluent, sensitive, often witty lines and simplified forms testify to the lasting influence of Gaudier-Brzeska and Modigliani. In Paris (1920-26) Hamnett was the best-known British woman painter, and friendly with Cocteau, Satie, Stravinsky and the composers known as Les Six.