Helen Allingham

Commissioned by George Bell (1814–1890), Hampstead Hill Gardens, London; 

Thence by descent to one of his daughters, Miss Bell, by 1909;

Thence by descent to George Bell's grandson, M.H Varvill, by 1972;

With Leger Galleries, London, by November 1978;

Private collection;

By whom sold, Malvern, Philip Serrell Auctioneers, 21 September 2023, lot 137; 

Where purchased by the present owners.

London, The Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours, 1875, no. 261;

Paris, Universal Exhibition of 1878, British Fine Art Section, 1878, no. 4;

Manchester & London, Fine Art Society, 1903;

London, Leger Galleries, Exhibition of English Watercolours, 13 November – 22 December 1978, no. 75;

Phoenix, Phoenix Art Museum, 6 March – 23 May 1993; Indianapolis, Indianapolis Museum of Art, 22 June – 29 August 1993, The Art of Seeing: John Ruskin and the Victorian Eye, no. 98;

London, Tate Britain, Now You See Us, Women Artists in Britain 1520–1920, 16 May – 13 October 2024, no. 131.

Liverpool Daily Post, 26 April 1875, p. 5

Manchester Evening News, 27 April 1875, p. 4

The Graphic, 1 May 1875, p. 15

Pall Mall Budget, 1 May 1875, p. 11

Illustrated London News, 8 May 1875, p. 439

Academy, 15 May 1875, p. 513

John Ruskin, Academy Notes, 1875, Vol. XIV, p. 264

The Art Journal, 1875, p. 214

E.C. Clayton, English Female Artists, London, 1876, p. 5

Paris Universal Exhibition of 1878, British Fine Art Section, exh. cat., London 1878, p. 30, no. 4;

E.T. Cook and A. Wedderburn (eds), The Works of John Ruskin, London 1908, vol. 33, p. 341; 

M.B. Huish, Happy England, London 1909, p. 50–5, no. 8, reproduced in colour;

Exhibition of English Watercolours, exh. cat., London 1978, n. p., no. 75, reproduced in colour on the front cover;

A. Lester (ed.), The Exhibited Works of Helen Allingham R.W.S. 1848–1926, Oxfordshire 1979, p. 28, no. 261;

S.P. Casteras et al (eds), John Ruskin and the Victorian Eye, exh. cat., Phoenix 1993, p. 156, fig. 119, reproduced; 

J. Devereaux, The Making of Women Artists in Victorian England – the Education and Careers of Six Professionals, Jefferson, 2016, pp. 116–117 reproduced cover and p. 117;

A. Lim, in Now You See Us, Women Artists in Britain 1520–1920, T. Barber (ed.), exh. cat., London 2024, pp. 150 and 209, no. 131, reproduced in colour p. 150.

‘The drawing by which, as we have said, Mrs. Allingham made her name, obtained election at the Society of Painters in Water Colours, was represented at her first appearance there in 1875, and also at the Paris Exposition in 1878, and through which she obtained the recognition of Ruskin, who thus wrote concerning it in Notes which he was at that time in the habit of compiling each year for the Summer Exhibitions.’ (Marcus B. Huish, Happy England as Painted by Helen Allingham, R.W.S., London, MCMIX, p.50)

‘It happens curiously that the only Drawing of which the memory remains with me as a possession, out of the Old Watercolour Exhibition of this year, is Mrs. Allingham’s “Young Customers.” The drawing is for ever lovely; a thing which I believe Gainsborough would have given one of his own pictures for, - old fashioned as red-tipped daisies are, - and more precious than rubies.’ (John Ruskin, Academy Notes, 1875, p. 264)

‘’Young Customers’, a couple of tiny girls in pink dresses and blue shoes, on a visit to an old lady who combines in her store sweets with toys, in order to make certain purchases for their doll. They are seated in front of the counter, and one of them tries a small iron on the edge of her own frock, while the other, who has charge of the doll, contemplates the operation with quite a matronly interest. The old lady and her belongings are admirably given, and the little heroines themselves, considering that there is a total absence of caricature, are a charmingly quaint and natural as anything the famous German delineator of childlife ever accomplished. Mrs. Allingham certainly holds her own, and will add, no doubt, lustre to the Society.’ (The Art Journal, 1875, p. 214)

Young Customers was based upon Allingham’s vignette drawing for an engraving entitled The Tin-maker’s Shop printed in ‘A Flat-Iron for a Farthing’ by Juliana Horatia Ewing. It was her first exhibit at the Royal Academy in 1875 and acclaimed enthusiastically by John Ruskin that year and again in 1883 when he presented a lecture at the Slade School of Art entitled Fairy Land which celebrated the work of Allingham and her contemporary Kate Greenaway – he described the subject as ; ‘the two deliberate housewives in their village toy-shop, bent on domestic utilities and economies, and proud of the acquisition of two flat irons for a farthing.’