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Helen Mary Elizabeth Allingham (Birth name Paterson; 26 September 1848 – 28 September 1926) was a British watercolourist and illustrator of the Victorian era.
Paterson showed a talent for art from an early age, drawing some of her inspiration from her maternal grandmother Sarah Smith Herford and aunt Laura Herford, both accomplished artists of their day. Her younger sister Caroline Paterson also became a noted artist. She initially studied art for three years at the Birmingham School of Design. She spent a year at the Royal Female School of Art in London, before following her aunt Laura Herford to the National Art Training School. In 1867 she enrolled in the Royal Academy School, which would later become the Royal College of Art. There, Frederick Walker encouraged her work in watercolors.
While Vincent van Gogh was developing as an artist by studying English illustrated journals he was struck by Paterson's work in The Graphic. Although women could not gain the same recognition as men at the time, Helen Allingham was one of the women artists who made a considerable impact, as artists like Van Gogh were influenced by her.
On 22 August 1874 she married William Allingham, Irish poet and editor of Fraser's Magazine, who was almost twice her age. After her marriage, she gave up her career as an illustrator and turned to watercolour painting. In 1881 the family moved from Chelsea to Witley in Surrey. Her first son, Gerald Carlyle, was born in November 1875. Her daughter was born on 21 February 1877 and her last son on 11 May 1882. Helen started to paint the countryside around her and particularly the picturesque farmhouses, cottages and gardens of Surrey and Sussex, for which she became famous.
In 1889, her husband died. Aged 41, she felt the pressure to support her 3 young children (14, 12, and 7) and stepped up the production of watercolour. These were done with great attention to detail and avoiding any sense of squalor or hardship. They became wildly popular, possibly because of the nostalgic needs of ex pats who went to faraway colonies or of those living in industrialising cities.Minneapolis Institute of Art, n.d, Description of "Wiltshire cottage" (Watercolour over graphite) by Helen Paterson Allingham However, her works were also criticised as "overly sentimental, conservative vision of the area".Alison Light, Mrs Woolf and the Servants (2007) p. 102 She went on to paint rural scenes in other parts of the country – Middlesex, Kent, the Isle of Wight and the West Country – and abroad in Venice, Italy. As well as landscapes, she completed several portraits, including one of Thomas Carlyle
In 1890, Allingham became the first woman to be admitted as a full member of the Royal Watercolour Society. At the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois she exhibited her work at the Palace of Fine Arts.
Burgh House, Hampstead, has the world's largest archive and collection of her work.
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