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. At age 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. However, her works were also criticised as "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, 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. Legacy The Helen Allingham Society was 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 Bibliography Illustrated by Helen Allingham 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 Notes Further reading A recent essay on Allingham and her art. See also New edition of Taylor's recent biography of Allingham. 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 http://www.chrisbeetles.com/artists/allingham-helen-rws-1848-1926.html http://www.spacial-anomaly.com/helen-allingham-and-her-cottages/ 1848 births 1926 deaths 19th-century English painters 20th-century English painters 19th-century English women artists 20th-century English women artists Alumni of the Birmingham School of Art Alumni of the