Helen Allingham (1848 - 1926)

RA Collection: People and Organisations

Helen Allingham RWS (née Paterson) was a British watercolourist and illustrator of the Victorian era.

She showed a talent for art from an early age, drawing some of her inspiration from her maternal grandmother Sarah Smith Herford (1818-c. 1870) and aunt, Laura Herford (1831–1870), both accomplished artists of their day. (The latter being the first woman to be admitted to the Royal Academy Schools, in 1860). Her younger sister Caroline Paterson (1856-1911) also became a noted artist.

She studied at the Birmingham School of Design and, and on 8th June 1868, was admitted to the Royal Academy Schools to study painting, having been recommended by her aunt, Laura Herford.

Here is a link to her entry, as Helen Paterson, in the RA Schools Register.

From 1869 she provided illustrations for Joseph Swain and subsequently for the Graphic and Cornhill magazines. She exhibited watercolours at the Dudley Gallery. In 1874 she married the Irish poet William Allingham (1824-1889), and her consequent financial independence allowed her to abandon black-and-white illustration. Her new circle of friends included Tennyson, Ruskin and Thomas Carlyle.

In 1875 she was elected an associate of the Old Water-Colour Society (she became a full member in 1890 after the prohibition on women members was withdrawn); she was a regular exhibitor there.