Italy: Siena Cathedral – Pulpit c.1881
Christiana Jane Herringham (1852–1929)
Royal Holloway, University of London
Christiana Jane Herringham [also known as Lady Herringham] was born Christiana Jane Powell in Blackheath, in Kent [now London], England on 8 December 1852. She received no formal art training, nevertheless, she was a talented artist and copyist of Old Masters. She dedicated herself to the revival of tempera painting, translating Cennino Cennini's 15th century treatise ‘Il Libro dell' Arte o trattato della pittura’ in 1899. In 1901 she was largely responsible for founding the Society of Painters in Tempera. She was also a founder member of the Women's Guild of Arts in 1907. With Agnes Garrett, she was one of the founding directors of the Ladies Residential Chamber Company Herringham is noted for the part she played in establishing the National Art-Collections Fund in 1903 and in assisting in the founding of the India Society, which encouraged the appreciation for Indian artistic tradition.
She was an active supporter of the campaign for women's suffrage and was a member of the Artists Suffrage League for whom she designed the banner 'Alliance Not Defiance', and, with Mary Lowndes, the Surrey, Sussex and Hants National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies banner.
In 1880 she married the physician Wilmot Herringham, (subsequently Sir Wilmot Herringham). Her later years were marred by mental illness and in 1911 she was committed to a private asylum where she spent the rest of her life. She died in Ditchling, Sussex on 25 February 1929.
Text source: Art History Research net (AHR net)
Text source: Art History Research net (AHR net)
