Peyton Skipwith enjoys an exhibition that reasserts the reputation of a leading female figure in Victorian art
IN the early 1960s, when Victorian art was at the nadir of its fortunes, Helen Allingham (1848–1926) was regarded as the doyenne of the ‘Jolly Hollyhocks School’ of watercolour painting. Her entire output, and sole subject matter, was deemed to consist of rather twee view of Surrey cottages with roses rambling round the porch and hollyhocks beside the door. True, she did paint a number of such scenes, but she also painted a great deal more and she only lived in Surrey for a mere seven years of her 78-year life.
Born Helen Paterson, the daughter of a doctor, she was brought up in Altrincham, Cheshire, until she was 14, when her father died of diphtheria, as did her three-year-old sister. After this tragedy, her mother moved the family to Birmingham, where Helen attended the School of Art; two years later, she moved to London and entered the Royal Academy Schools and, very soon after, she was receiving her first commissions for black-and-white magazine illustrations.
These were not sentimental scenes, but tough and gritty drawings of social deprivation designed to appeal to audiences reared on Luke Fildes’s Applicants for Admission to a Casual Ward and Frank Holl’s No Tidings from the Sea.
Esta historia es de la edición December 27, 2017 de Country Life UK.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición December 27, 2017 de Country Life UK.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds
