Flora and Sir Irvine were first cousins, having married when Irvine moved to Scotland from Australia to pursue chemistry. Their family was highly academic and creative, leaving them both to continue that legacy.

The couple moved to Sheffield in 1938 from Durham and travelled frequently but Flora seemed to have a constant longing for Scotland as shown through her many Scottish landscapes. Her work conveys a strong sense of awe and inspiration drawn from the country.

Flora’s landscapes often assumed an impressionist style. In this painting of Skye, the simple, spaced brushstrokes convey the whiteness of the sky and the water’s reflection. From a distance, Flora’s works appear realistic, but up close they display an authentic simplicity.

Flora and Sir Irvine’s great aunt was the first woman in England to obtain a law degree and their grandfather was a successful literary critic, supporter of the suffragists, and friend to the Pre-Raphaelites.

Sir Irvine was a successful chemist and lifelong academic, continuing the family tradition. This portrait depicts Sir Irvine at the point of his retirement from being Vice-Chancellor at Sheffield University.

Sir Irvine was knighted in 1950 and given an honorary degree from Sheffield, it was this that provided Flora with the name written on each of her paintings ‘LFM’.

When Sir Irvine died, he bequeathed Flora’s paintings to the University. Sir Irvine never recovered from Flora’s death in 1960 and he died shortly after her in 1962.

Both Flora’s and Margaret’s pasts are rather elusive, however, we can learn about their experiences through their artwork.

Here, Flora paints from a hotel in Jamaica in the 1950s. Sir Irvine visited Jamaica as a visiting Commissioner of the University of the West Indies and Flora joined him. Flora was as much a witness to Sheffield University’s history as her husband was and this painting in particular reveals her presence at Irvine’s side.

We can tell that painting was more than a casual hobby to Flora because she would take her paints and brushes with her on all of her trips. It was likely a serious endeavour, though we don’t know if she had any artistic training in it.

Though Flora’s style was characterised by her landscapes, she created this still life painting.

This piece, featuring three peacock feathers in a vase, can provide viewers with a glimpse of Flora’s homelife. The painting conveys a home that is carefully curated with exotic influences - something which often enticed the British upper-middle classes in the late 19th- to early 20th-centuries.

Painted in 1942, this painting might be a consequence of Flora having to travel less during wartime, turning to her home for inspiration instead.

The pigments used for the vase and feathers have a depth that is difficult to achieve when using watercolours, successfully creating an inky, chromatic effect, and her brushwork seems to be more detailed.

Similarly to Flora, Margaret Shaw would paint what she saw before her. However Margaret’s works did not reveal a life spent amongst vast landscapes, but a quiet life, shaped by academia and simplicity.

The academic side of such a picture is portrayed in this painting Margaret created of Sheffield University’s History Department Library - now Barber House. Completed in 1980, Margaret conveys the period through small details such as the fishnets, comb-overs and wide-brimmed glasses. Margaret likely knew Sheffield’s campus through accompanying her husband there as he lectured and having been born and raised in Sheffield herself.

Margaret’s simple brushwork conveys a confident familiarity with the space and an effortlessness.

The comfort Margaret conveys through her work continues in this still life of a vase of flowers. The diluted use of watercolours emphasises the light in her artwork, creating a sense of the sun streaming through the window in this painting.

This is unlike Flora’s still life watercolour of peacock feathers in a vase as it forms a more joyous and colourful depiction of what Margaret saw before her. This painting alludes to a happiness that the artist might have experienced while painting it and reiterates the simplicity of Margaret’s life and art style. Though she uses more detailed brush work than her depiction of the History Library, Margaret’s short strokes touch on impressionism, particularly in the gentle background showing beyond.

Completed c.1978, this depiction of the Baptistry at Pisa draws another similarity between Margaret’s and Flora’s lifestyles. As the educated middle class, both women travelled but that did not hinder their artistry.

Margaret conveys an architectural admiration through this painting. The darkest and lightest colours are used to create her depiction, drawing the eye of the viewer to its contrasting details. The Heritage Collections contain other similarly architectural paintings completed by Margaret that imply a level of inspiration she drew from buildings.

Sadly, Margaret died five years after this painting was created and the timescale of her works show she continued creating art until just before her death.