Helen Allingham. RWS

Biography

Helen Allingham, nee Paterson, was born in Burton on Trent on 26 September 1848. She was a painter and illustrator. The daughter of a physician, she was brought up in Altrincham, Cheshire, and after her father’s death in 1862 she moved to Birmingham. She studied at the Birmingham School of Design and from 1867 at the Royal Academy Schools. London.

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, and her consequent financial independence allowed her to abandon black-and-white illustration. Her new circle of friends included Tennyson, Ruskin and Thomas Carlyle, whose portrait she drew (version of 1879; Edinburgh, N. P. G.).

In 1875 she was elected an associate of the Old Watercolour Society and became a full member in 1890 after the prohibition on lady members was withdrawn. She was a regular exhibitor there.