Helen Allingham

Helen Allingham
Helen Allingham in 1903
Born	Helen Mary Elizabeth Paterson 26 September 1848 Swadlincote, Derbyshire, England
Died	28 September 1926 Haslemere, Surrey, England
Nationality	British
Other names	H. Paterson
Occupation(s)	illustrator and watercolour artist
Spouse	William Allingham (1874–1889)
Website	Helen Allingham society

Helen Allingham RWS (née Helen Mary Elizabeth Paterson; 26 September 1848 – 28 September 1926) was an English watercolour painter and illustrator of the Victorian era.

Biography

Helen Mary Elizabeth Paterson was born on 26 September 1848, at Swadlincote in Derbyshire, the daughter of Alexander Henry Paterson, a medical doctor, and Mary Herford Paterson. Helen Paterson was the eldest of seven children. The family moved to Altrincham in Cheshire when she was one year old. In 1862 her father and her 3-year-old sister Isabel died of diphtheria during an epidemic. The family then moved to Birmingham, where some of Alexander Paterson's family lived.

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 (founded 1843). From 1867 she attended the National Art Training School in London, which had a separate division for women; her aunt Laura Herford had previously studied there. The School is presently the Royal College of Art.

Career

The saucer of milk

Allingham's watercolour painting of Craigenputtock, the home of Thomas Carlyle

While studying at the National Art Training School, Paterson worked as an illustrator, eventually deciding to give up her studies in favour of a full-time career in art. She painted for children's and adult books, as well as for periodicals, including The Graphic newspaper. One highlight was her commission to provide twelve illustrations for the 1874 serialisation of Thomas Hardy's novel Far from the Madding Crowd in Cornhill Magazine. Her illustrations from this era were signed "H. Paterson". She became a lifelong friend of Kate Greenaway whom she met at evening art classes at the Slade School of Fine Art.

While Vincent Van Gogh was developing as an artist by studying English illustrated journals he was struck by Patterson's work in The Graphic.

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. Helen started to paint the beautiful countryside around her and particularly the picturesque farmhouses and cottages of Surrey and Sussex for which she became famous. To her critics, however, despite elements of protest in 'The Condemned Cottage' for example, hers was an overly sentimental, conservative vision of the area. 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, she became the first woman to be admitted as a full member of the Royal Watercolour Society.

Legacy

There is a Helen Allingham Society, founded in 2000. Her time in Altrincham is commemorated by blue plaques at 16 Market Street, Altrincham and at Levenhurst, St. John's Road, Bowdon.

Burgh House, Hampstead, has the world's largest archive and collection of her work.

Paintings

• 
  William Allingham 1876
• 
  Irish Cottage
• 
  A Herbaceous Border
• 
  Harvest Moon
• 
  A Cottage With Sunflowers At Peaslake
• 
  The Lady of the Manor
• 
  Morning at the Quay in Venice
• 
  Thomas Carlyle, historian and essayist (1795–1881)

Bibliography

Illustrated by Helen Allingham

• Huish, Marcus B. (1903). Happy England as Painted by Helen Allingham, R.W.S. Adam & Charles Black. OCLC 9062256.
• Paterson, Arthur Henry (1905). The homes of Tennyson (Adam & Charles Black). Paterson was Helen Allingham's brother.

Written by Helen Allingham

• Seedtime and reaping (Samuel Tinsley, 1877).

See also

• Walter Tyndale (1855–1943), influenced by Allingham and also lived in Surrey.
• Myles Birket Foster

Further reading

• Helmreich, Anne (2001). "The marketing of Helen Allingham: the English cottage and national identity". In Adams, Steven; Robins, Anna Gruetzner (eds.). Gendering landscape art. Rutgers University Press. pp. 45–60. ISBN 0-8135-2974-3. A recent essay on Allingham and her art.
• Lester, Anthony J. (1979). The Exhibited Works of Helen Allingham, 1848–1926. Oxfordshire: Wallingford. OCLC 16494169. See also The Exhibited Works of Helen Allingham, R. W. S., 1848–1926. Wallingford. 1979. OCLC 84054249.
• Taylor, Ina (2000). Helen Allingham's England. Caxton Editions. ISBN 978-1840670875. OCLC 50055173. New edition of Helen Allingham's England : an idyllic view of rural life. Exeter, Devon: Webb & Bower. 1990. ISBN 9780863503962. OCLC 26721725. Taylor's recent biography of Allingham.
• Watts, Annabel (2002). Helen Allingham's Cottage Homes – Revisited. ISBN 9780952388203. OCLC 228661464. Reproductions of Allingham's paintings of cottages along with contemporary photographs of the same structures.
• Annabel Watts: article & bibliography in Studies in Illustration no.31/32 Winter 2005/Spring 2006 (Imaginative Book Illustration Society at www.bookillustration.org)

External links

• Helen Allingam society