Helen Allingham RWS (1848-1926)

Helen Allingham RWS (1848-1926)
Chase Cottage and Pond, Blackdown, Surrey
Signed HAllingham (lower left)
Pencil and watercolour with scratching out
37.4 x 26.7cm; 14¾ x 10½in

Provenance:
The artist's studio, 1905

Literature:
Arthur Paterson, The Homes of Tennyson painted by Helen Allingham (A. & C. Black, 1905), p.72 (illustrated);
Helen Allingham, Cottages of England: Watercolours by Helen Allingham (A. & C. Black, 1925), pl.11

Exhibited:
London, The Royal Society of Painters in Water-Colours, Winter Exhibition, 1905, no.176

In The Homes of Tennyson (op.cit), Helen Allingham writes of the present work, 'Lord Tennyson, who showed me this secluded spot some years ago, told me that it was one of his father’s favourite walks from Aldworth. It lies in a hollow of Blackdown. The Poet always loved water (running water when possible) and liked to come and look into the depth of this shady pond and to watch the little gold birch and beech leaves floating on its surface – as they floated last autumn when I made this drawing'.

We are grateful to Annabel Watts for her assistance cataloguing the present work.