Robinson, Anne Marjorie (1858–1924), miniature portrait painter, was born 15 August 1858 in Belfast. She showed a considerable talent in art from an early age and expressed herself by decorating her exercise books at school. Through the influence of Vere Foster (qv), she was placed with John Vinycomb (qv), designer, illuminator and head of the art department at Marcus Ward's (qv) printing and publishing firm in Belfast, and soon became a skilled illuminator. She also attended classes at the Government School of Design, Belfast, where she was awarded three years’ free tuition for excellence in drawing. She was an active member of the Belfast Ramblers’ Sketching Club from 1886 to 1890 and of the Belfast Arts Society from 1895 to 1924, and featured regularly in their exhibitions, showing landscapes, portraits and, in later years, miniatures. Her address in 1901 was 2 Duncairn Gardens, Antrim Road, Belfast.
Robinson worked independently for a while, but with an interest in learning the art of miniature portraiture she decided to move to London in 1907, and studied with Alyn Williams (1865–1955). This was perhaps an unusual choice of career, as photography had long superseded the miniature portrait. By 1912 she was an associate member of the Royal Miniature Society and over the years exhibited twenty-five works with them. She attended classes in modelling while in London, and there are two examples of her sculpture in the Ulster Museum: ‘A study from life’ (plaster, c.1911) and a bronze, ‘Fate, love, life’ (c.1913). She exhibited for the first time with the Royal Hibernian Academy, in 1911, from an address at 36 Waterford Road, Fulham, London, and entered almost every year until 1921.
When war broke out she returned to Belfast and lived at 139 Antrim Road. Three of her exhibits in the RHA (between 1917 and 1919) were based on the life of St Bridget (qv), and now form a triptych in the Ulster Museum. She became an associate member of the Society of Women Artists in 1917 and exhibited five works with them. Her paintings were also shown in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, and in the Royal Academy, where in 1919 she exhibited two portraits, ‘Mrs George Hammond’ and ‘George Hammond esq.’ These portraits were shown in the RHA exhibition the following year. The NGI has a single portrait miniature of a young lady, which gives an indication of Robinson's skill and natural flair, as does a portrait, ‘Reverie’ (1914), shown in the Irish Women Artists exhibition in Dublin in 1987. The Ulster Museum has by far the best representative selection of her work, including a self-portrait (oil on canvas). She died 22 October 1924 in Belfast. Her brother John B. Robinson donated twenty-two miniatures to the museum as a memorial.