Watercolour on paper

Bequeathed to The Herbert by M.K. Pridmore, 1945. Malcolm Kenneth Pridmore (1869-1945) was a solicitor, local councillor and Lord Mayor of Coventry. He established the City Electricity Department and was interested in slum clearance, being instrumental in the erection of Coventry's first council houses in 1907. He was an art connoisseur and he gave this city his collection of eleven works of art by various artists.

The Subject

The subject of this watercolour by Helen Allingham is not a surprise. Scenes around an ideal village formed Pridmore's dream: feeding the hens, gleaning the wheat after the harvesting, leading the geese, with a kiddy's cart or standing in a flower-filled wood, but above all at the cottage gate or just standing blissfully at the cottage door, in the summer, with the ideal cottage garden, and a little child.

The Artist

The artist was born Helen Paterson, at Swadlincote near Burton on Trent. Her father was a successful doctor but when Helen was 13he died while tackling an outbreak of diphtheria. Her mother moved with her surviving children to Birmingham where they had two aunts who could lend a hand. Helen studied first at the Art School in Birmingham and then moved to London to study at the Royal Female School of Art.The next year she was accepted for the Royal Academy Schools in London. There she was profoundly influenced by Frederick Walker, a painter whose rural scenes appear effortless, but are skilfully tinged with a most profound wistfulness.

While studying she needed to bring in money to live and she joined the staff of the new weekly Graphic magazine. Her talent was soon appreciated and she illustrated Thomas Hardy's 'Far from the Madding Crowd' and other important works. She also studied at the Slade School of Art in London where she became a lifelong friend of children's illustrator Kate Greenaway. In 1874 she married the editor of Fraser's Magazine, William Allingham. He introduced her to many of the famous figures of the time: Carlyle, Ruskin, Tennyson, Browning and Rossetti.

Her large number of watercolours featuring children stem from this time. She exhibited more than a hundred watercolours during just seven years in London. After 1881 when they moved into the country, scenes of cottages were her passion. In 1889 William Allingham died, and she found herself having to paint for money rather than purely for pleasure. Her works were already commanding high prices and so, enjoying continued good health, she continued to paint right up to her sudden death at the age of 78.

The Place of Helen Allingham in Art

Helen Allingham is in many hearts and on many a chocolate box, because somehow she succeeded in distilling the sweetness and innocence of life. She did not change art but certainly she enriched our experience, which does make her a true artist.