She would have been the first female director of one of the UK's most distinguished art schools.

But in 1933, Dorothy Carleton Smyth, a brilliant Glaswegian artist and teacher, was struck down by a brain haemorrhage and her art, achievements and personality became lost in the annals of time.

Now curators at the National Galleries of Scotland are seeking the public's help to find out more about Carleton Smyth, the woman who could have been the first female director of the Glasgow School of Art.

An enigmatic self-portrait of Carleton Smyth, born in Glasgow in 1880, hangs in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.

But Alice Strang, senior curator at the galleries and the organiser of a major show about Scottish women artists, is hoping readers of The Herald can provide more information not only on Carleton Smyth - elected to the director position at the GSA before her untimely death - but another Scottish artist, Ivy Gardner.

Ms Strang is seeking the information in time for a major show on Scottish female artists, Modern Scottish Women - Painters and Sculptors 1885-1965 which will run at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art 2 from November 7 to June 26 next year.

Carleton Smyth, who died aged 41, who was known to be almost inseparable from her sister, Olive, became a teacher at the GSA in 1914.

She taught courses ranging from gesso plastering and metalwork to miniature painting and the history of costume and armour, as well as painting and working as a decorative artist.

She also had a real passion for costume design and she worked for several theatre and opera companies in London, Sweden and Paris.

Ms Strang, who can be contacted at the National Galleries in Edinburgh by anyone with information on the two artists, said: "We have a lot of facts about Carleton Smyth but we don't know much about her as a person.

"It seems she was quite a personality - the portrait speaks of humour and talent but did anyone know her and Olive?

"Has anyone got a cache of letters, or drawings or paintings by her? Hopefully something can come to light."

Gardner, born in Gourock in 1894, also created many portraits of children, from 1924 to 1957, and Ms Strang is looking for any of the sitters and models who may remember working with the artist.

Ms Strang added: "She is best known for her sculptural portraits of children, lots of which were exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy and Royal Glasgow Institute - and I hope that some of her sitters, or their children, will still be alive and might have memories or stories of modelling for her in Bearsden or her 15 Woodside Terrace, Glasgow studio.

"If anything she is even more enigmatic, she was a very active and enthusiastic artist for more than 30 years, but what was she like as a person? We would love to know."

Ms Strang said she hopes the whole show will be "revelatory, fascinating and inspiring".