Helen Allingham - Polly

signed 'H.Allingham' (lower right), and with inscription 'Polly/by Mrs Allingham/Eldon House/Lyndhurst Road/Hampstead' (on a label on the reverse)
watercolour, with scratching out
5.3/8 x 4 in. (14.6 x 12.1 cm.)

Helen Allingham's portraits of children were usually given as a personal gift from the artist to the child's family, and they are now considered as desirable as her commercial cottage paintings. Her own children appear in portraits, examples of which can be seen in the Patric Allingham Bequest held at Burgh House, Hampstead; Allingham's own self-portrait and two larger watercolours of her husband William, and one of Lord Tennyson in his library at Farringford also feature in the collection.

Other sitters varied from the theologian, Dr. James Martineau, Thomas Carlyle to eldery villager folk and young women. Although not immediately associated with portraiture much of Allingham's early work takes this form.
We are grateful to Annabel Watts for her help in preparing this catalogue entry.

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