Gallery Talk by artist Rea Stavropoulos introducing the exhibition “Beyond Watercolour Gardens: Helen Allingham Revisited” at Burgh House & Hampstead Museum until 9 October 2016 which she has co-curated and in which she exhibits her own artwork to provide a fresh perspective on the life and work of the popular Victorian artist. Helen Allingham (1848 -1926) was famous in her lifetime for her cottage garden watercolours, but as a young woman she was also a successful illustrator admired by Van Gogh. Rea’s introduction draws parallels between her own work as a contemporary woman and artist and that of Allingham, working over a century earlier, and looks beyond the work at the woman who combined being a wife and mother with a career as a professional artist.