Helen Mary Elizabeth Allingham, R.W.S.

Helen Allingham is one of the most successful artists of the Victorian Era and worked mostly with watercolors. Today, Allingham is famous for her illustrations for magazines and other printing media of the period, especially for her cottage paintings and beautiful landscapes. Through Vincent Van Gogh's correspondence with his brother Theo, he declared his admiration for Allingham's illustrations.

Early Life

Helen Mary Elizabeth Paterson, also known as Helen Allingham, was born on September 26th of 1848, in the small village of Swadlincote. It is located near the region of Derbyshire. The first child of their parents, Alexander Henry Paterson and Mary Heford, Helen had six siblings. Alexander was a rural doctor, and Mary belonged to a family of wine merchants of Manchester.

The Paterson family moved to Altrincham right after she was born, where young Helen attended a Unitarian school for girls, an institution created by her grandmother. When Helen was only 14, her father and younger sister died from an epidemic, forcing the family to move to Birmingham to live with Alexander's mother.

Artistic Education

Allingham was born in a family of artists. Her maternal grandmother, the Unitarian school founder, was Sarah Smith Herford, a landscape painter. Sarah's daughter, Laura Herford, was the first woman to be accepted into the Royal Academy in 1860. Caroline Paterson, one of her younger sisters, became an accomplished artist as well. It's safe to say, then, that her domestic environment was already one that stimulated contact with culture and the arts.

The first formal art education Helen received was at the Birmingham School of Design, where she studied for three years. When she was 17, Allingham moved to London, where she enrolled in the Royal Female School of Art. The institution began as a governmental investment in the education of working-class women. Later, during the administration of artist Fanny Mclan, it became famous for its high quality, receiving many paying middle-class students as well. There, she had classes with oil on canvas but wasn't particularly fond of the technique. Unfortunately, there are no surviving oil paintings by the artist.

In the company of her aunt Laura, Allingham went to the National Art Training School. Her previous studies were at the Royal Academy School, another institution funded by the government. The National Art Training School was fundamental for British art and famous for being a college focused on the formation of teachers. During her time there, she was particularly fascinated by the lessons of Sir Frederic Leighton, Sir John Everett Millais, and Frederick Walker, the latter being a strong influence on her work.

Working with Publishing

While at the National Art Training School, the British painter started to work as an illustrator. She began to make a good income out of it and decided it was time to leave her classes and focus on her career full time. From 1869 she worked with the magazine Once a Week, making four drawings per commission.

In the next year, she became one of the founding members of the publication The Graphic. Different from her previous works, this was a large-scale publication that emphasized the importance of quality printing. This introduced her to a new network of clients, and she specialized in illustration for children's books, which had a high demand on the market. By then, Helen Allingham's prints were very popular.

One of her most prestigious book-related commissions was a Thomas Hardy novel called Far from the Madding Crowd, released as a series by the Cornhill Magazine. The book was a literary success and dealt with love and betrayal in a rural Victorian setting. Right after this, she worked with author Juliana Ewing.

William Allingham - Poet and Husband

Working with many commissions that dealt with texts, Helen became intimate to London's literary circles. In one of these events, she met the editor of Fraser's Magazine, the Irish poet William Allingham. William was 24 years older than Helen and was well acquainted with many prominent literary figures and intellectuals of their time, such as John Ruskin, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Alfred Lorde Tennyson, and Thomas Carlyle.

The two artists began a relationship, and after their marriage, they moved to the Trafalgar Square area, where they kept close contact with the author Carlyle. The philosopher was one of William's closest friends and was depicted in some of Helen's watercolors. Since their union made her stay at ease concerning their finances, she dropped her job at The Graphic and dedicated herself to watercolor painting.

Landscape and Cottage Painting

In 1874, Helen Allingham submitted two artworks for the yearly Royal Academy Show. They were bought during the event, which prompted more artistic commissions for her. Another pivotal support for her career as a watercolorist was the sponsorship of British landscape painter Alfred William Hunt. He helped her to gain full membership in the Royal Watercolour Society in the next year.

The first son of the couple was born in 1875, having his name in honor of their great friend Carlyle: Gerald Carlyle. Two years later, Eva Margaret was born, and in 1882, Henry William. Helen Allingham kept frequently producing during this period. In the seven years they lived in the Trafalgar Square address, she exhibited more than a hundred of her artworks.

Thomas Carlyle had died in 1881. His passing made the family consider moving, and they did during the same year, going to the rural region of Surrey. There, Allingham developed her personal manner of working with watercolors. She shifted her view of compositions that depicted large areas to a more intimate depiction of life in the countryside.

In this house called Sandhills, Helen, William, and their children spent some of their happiest years. Her watercolors and cottage paintings only got increasingly popular over the years. In 1886, she was invited for a solo show in the Fine Art Society of London. Three years prior, Vincent Van Gogh declared his admiration for one of her works called Dolorosa, the depiction of a sad woman's face, in his correspondence with his brother.

Later Years and Death

In 1888, the Allinghams decided to move to London again because of William's health issues. They rented a house in Hampstead, but Helen returned to Surrey to paint from time to time. William died in 1889, leaving little finances for the family. Luckily, by then, Allingham's famous paintings were sold at a rather high price, and she was able to provide for her family.

There isn't much information on her later life. She continued painting and took trips abroad to observe and paint new surroundings since she enjoyed painting on location. Once again, Allingham worked making color plates and providing illustrations for her books. She also organized and published her husband's poetry.

Helen Mary Elizabeth Paterson died on September 28th, 1926. She was 78 years old.