Christiana Jane Herringham (née Powell), also Lady Herringham.

Artist, collector and art patron, suffragist, translator, traveller.

18 December 1852 – 25 February 1929

Education

May 1871 enrolled at Female School of Art, Queen Square, Bloomsbury.

1875/1876 and 1878/9 Studied at the Slade School of Fine Art but as a woman barred from taking life-drawing.

Some Key Achievements and Interests 

1888 One of the founding directors of the Ladies’ Residential Chambers Company providing accommodation for professional single women. 

1901 Co-founder of the Society of Painters in Tempera.

1903 Only female founder member of the National Arts Collection Fund.

Travelled to the Ajanta caves in India several times to study Buddhist wall paintings and make copies as records before their further deterioration.

1907 One of the founding members of the Women’s Guild of Arts.

Supporter of the Artists’ Suffrage League. Made banners for suffragists groups.

Campaigned on behalf of many suffrage societies. 

Provided funds (with her husband) for research fellowships at Newnham, Cambridge. This enabled Jane Harrison to return to Newnham to continue her academic research.

Issues

On mother’s death in 1871 had to help bring up her six younger siblings.

From 1914 suffered from mental ill health issues.

Connection to Bloomsbury

Female School of Art.

Slade School of Fine Art.

Female Networks include:

Agnes Garrett, Annie Swynnweron, Bertha Newcombe, Dorothy Larcher, Mary Bateson, Mary Lowndes, Millicent Fawcett, Rhoda Garrett.

Works/Publications include

1899 Translation of Il libro dell’arte by Cennino Cennini.

1903 How to Paint Tempera Pictures.

1907 ed Papers of the Society of Painters in Tempera 1901-1907.

1915 Ajanta Frescoes (London: India Society).

Life Study: Seated Woman with her legs to the side. 

Early 20^th C Head of the Magdalene.

Heritage

‘Lady Herringham Collection’ housed at Royal Holloway, University of London – Herringham left a large collection of her work and collectors’ items (fine and decorative art, her own paintings, textiles, Japanese watercolours and woodblock prints etc).

Collection at Newnham College, Cambridge.

Further reading
Christiana Herringham and the Ajanta Frescoes. The Victorian Web, https://victorianweb.org/victorian/painting/herringham/ajanta.htmlor

Christiana Herringham and the Art Collections at Newnham College. McBurney Ryan, Henrietta; https://www.academia.edu/42169218/Christiana_Herringham_and_the_Art_Collections_at_Newnham_College

Christiana Herringham: Artist, Campaigner, Collector, Royal Holloway College, https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/about-us/the-library/the-exhibition-space-at-the-emily-wilding-davison-building/digital-museum/art-collection-films/christiana-herringham/

Christiana Herringham, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christiana_Herringham

Christiana Jane Herringham, née Powell (1852-1929). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/64758