It is hard to imagine from these reproductions how big these posters are, but think one and a half metres square and you'll get the idea. This reproduction is taken from the Bridgeman Art Library. It will have been sold at a poster sale in recent years, so some lucky person has it hanging on their wall, or more than one person – originally hundreds of these posters were printed, their rarity value is because so few unspoilt copies have survived. The poster dealers eg Leslie Sherlock and Paul Rennie will search for a particular poster and they have a good success rate: we asked Leslie to find a copy of the Shell poster which we used on the front of the Classic edition of Miss Pettigrew and he managed it.

So in fact we shall have a second 'neglected' female artist next week – and, instead, in honour of la rentrée, we shall have four days of travel posters as a reminder of the holidays. 'Kent' is for sale at Leslie Sherlock (seen here in a version which lacks 'See Britain By Train' and the British Rail logo, less authentic but even more glorious). It's by Frank Sherwin and is 1955.

Dod Procter (here) also painted Eileen Mayo (here), as did Bernard Meninsky who painted Betty Miller, but in the end her own artistic sensibility triumphed and in the UK Eileen Mayo became a very successful book illustrator; then, after she emigrated first to Australia and then New Zealand, she became well-known as a printmaker, and designed stamps, posters, coins, tapestries etc. This is the cover of a book she did for Puffin in 1951, the entire thing can be seen here, at an incredible website called VTS (Visual Telling of Stories).

Here is a lock of Eileen Mayo's hair and a rather good post about it on the Tate archive. (It is in fact exactly the same colour as in the Harold Knight painting.) And here is a letter (for sale at Maggs Rare Books) from Duncan Grant to Eileen Mayo – she was one of his favourite models as well, although nowadays we associate him with interiors and still lives rather than paintings of people.

Bric-a-Brac 1928 by Harold Knight (1874-1961) © Bonhams/Bridgeman Art Library. This is a painting of Eileen Mayo herself: she was one of Harold and Laura Knight's favourite models.

Eileen Mayo's first colour linocut Turkish Bath was on show at an exhibition of linocuts at the Redfern Gallery in 1930. The Observer said it was 'the most satisfactory print in the show' and remarked on its rhythmic flow, dynamic pattern and colour; © the Estate of Eileen Mayo/Private Collection/Michael Parkin Gallery/Bridgeman Art Library.

The beautiful Vanessa Bell painting below made us think of the Eileen Mayo still life that we had on the post a year ago, here. So we thought we would have a couple of weeks of neglected, or rather not-so-often-mentioned, women artists and Eileen Mayo (1906-94) herself is first up: Still Life with a painting of the dancer Karsavina c. 1920 was recently sold by Bay East Auctions. Here is Eileen Mayo's obituary from the Independent. Looking at a painting like this and the one below does of course raise the perennial question: why are some artists and writers well-known and others barely heard of? Answers on a postcard please! This is especially on our minds because we have been reading the new Alan Hollinghurst (Booker longlist etc) just after devouring, being unable to put down, Helen Hull's 1932 novel Heat Lightning. Has anyone heard of it. Has anyone not heard of the Hollinghurst? And which is the better novel?

So, all the pictures of holiday cottages and cliffs can't change the fact that we are back to 'normal life'. But living in London is made glorious for those lucky enough to have a garden. Ours is full of petunias, gladioli, apples and crab apples, and various other flowers that were bought from Sarah Raven (memo: it's time to order bulbs from her or from Peter Nyssen) or have seeded themselves. We have tried to recreate an approximation of this 1937 Still Life of Flowers and Thistles by Vanessa Bell (it was sold by Cheffins last September so the whereabouts are unknown).

Laura Knight On the Cliffs 1917. It's interesting that one can immediately tell it's late-afternoon sun. This is Cornwall, above a cove between Lamorna and Porthcurno. The painting sold at Sotheby's in December 2009 (for an estimated £300,000 and in the end it sold for more than double that) so it's not clear where it is now; here is some background.

And then there are the paintings that accompany the holidaymaker in his or her imagination (we had no phone or internet connection so it all had to be in our head). This is The Harbour Window 1910 by Stanhope Forbes (1857-1947) Royal Academy Collections. It was painted at Mousehole in Cornwall.

This is the beach - fifteen minutes walk from the cottage and if we saw another family we were surprised and faintly put out. However, this is a romanticised photograph as it looks as though there is sand; in fact there is a little sand at low tide but mostly Peppercombe beach consists of stones, which are not ideal for small children (but the rock pools were perfect). The grown-ups resolved to come back in May to see the bluebell woods.

At the weekend one of us came back from holiday and the one who was holding the fort goes to Sweden this Friday: last week's posts were thus in anticipation, this week's are retrospective, a celebration of Devon, rain, time to read, family. We were here, at a National Trust cottage at Peppercombe between Clovelly and Bideford. It was heaven and although London is (now) quiet and empty-feeling, we miss the complete silence at Combe Cottage, which is only accessible on foot up quite a steep track and out of earshot of cars. And in spirit we were not so far from Persephone Books: the Trust has compiled a booklet with before and after photographs showing how utterly 'neglected' (key word from our website) the cottage was before the Trust did it up fifteen years ago.

Elin Wagner (1882-1949) was a well-known suffragist, environmentalist and pacifist. In 1941 she wrote Alarm Clock, an exploration of the relationship between men and women as well as that between people and the environment. The text has never been translated into English but a critique of it is available to download here. A volume containing translations of two of her novels was recently published; read synopses here.

A friend of Eva Bonnier, Hanna (Hirsch-)Pauli (1864-1940) also studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts before moving to Paris for two years and sharing a studio with Bonnier. Her portrait of Finnish sculptor Venny Soldan-Brofeldt provoked criticism for its 'unladylike' portrayal of the artist sitting on the floor holding clay. In the early 1900s Pauli also painted the Swedish difference feminist Ellen Key (labelled anti-feminist by some of her contemporaries who believed in socialisation, while Key herself emphasised the woman's role as mother and biological determinism). The painting hangs in the National Museum in Stockholm and can be viewed here.

Anders Zorn (1860-1920) painted A Fisherman in St. Ives, Cornwall in 1888. He and his wife Emma spent the winter of 1887-8 in St. Ives, which is where he began painting with oils instead of water colours. This was his second ever oil painting and was exhibited at the Paris salon in the same year and purchased by the French state. A slideshow of Zorn's work can be seen here. Another of Zorn's most treasured paintings depicts a traditional Midsummer dance and hangs in the National Museum in Stockholm.

At the Studio Door.

As a young woman Eva Bonnier (1857-1909), a contemporary of Larsson, attended the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts. She later became known as a portraitist and philanthropist, establishing a foundation to provide public places, such as Stockholm University, with paintings and sculptures. More of her portraits can be viewed here.

This week the Persephone Post visits early twentieth-century Sweden. Carl Larsson (1853-1919) is perhaps one of Sweden's best-known artists. His paintings often depict domestic idylls and in his memoirs he writes that these pictures 'became the most immediate and lasting part of [his] life's work.' If you happen to be in the village of Sundborn between May and October you can visit his house; he was also known as an interior designer, thus this lovely matsal (dining room).

We publish Dorothy Canfield Fisher of course and would love to do more. The novel on our shortlist is The Bent Twig but it is on Project Gutenberg. Does this make a difference to you? Should it make a difference to us? Answers on a postcard please – or the modern equivalent. By the way, we say all this all the time: DCF is a great American novelist. If only Americans would recognise her as such. They should put her up there with her contemporary Willa Cather. And with Susan Glaspell. And with Edith Wharton. But because Dorothy Canfield Fisher wrote about the domestic, she has been briskly excluded from the canon.

Naomi Mitchison (here is a review of a short biography) was a fascinating person but her novels are an acquired taste. Virago did two or three, Canongate have some in print, however it's hard to find one that is outstanding (having said that, many people do rate her work very highly). Among You Taking Notes, her wartime diary, is readable and full of interesting details and insight. This portrait by Wyndham Lewis is in the National Gallery of Scotland.

Alice Adams (1926-99) has been on our long, if not short, list for a very long time. The problem is that no one has heard of her in the UK. Superior Women would probably be the one we would choose to reprint. Here are three interviews with this fascinating, witty and observant writer, and here is her obituary in the LA Times. John Updike's remark is particularly apt: she 'always comes to the point from an unexpected angle, without fuss.'

Angelica Garnett's Deceived with Kindness is an excellent book (but it's in print). The photograph of Angelica Garnett in the studio at Charleston © National Portrait Gallery is by Jane Bown and was taken in 1979, the year after Duncan Grant died and the year before the Charleston Trust was set up.

This week, pictures of possibly-Persephone authors. Here is May Sinclair. The Creators, The Crowded Maze and The Tree of Heaven are the three novels that have always been on on our longlist but somehow haven't made it to the shortlist, and now almost certainly never will because they are all available on Project Gutenberg or archive.org. Another example of the inexplicable laws of copyright: in the UK May Sinclair's work does not become pd (public domain) until 2016 ie seventy years after 1946 but in the USA (and therefore worldwide) her novels are safely pd and can therefore be published electronically.