Chelsea Old Church, 1905. Image: British Museum
Adeline Sarah Illingworth (1858 – 1942) was a Bradford-born artist/etcher and printmaker who specialised in architectural drawings.
She was one of six surviving children to father, Thomas Illingworth, a manufacturing chemist, and mother, Sarah. The family lived at Mannigham, Bradford and later at Easby Drive, Ilkley.
It is believed that Adeline studied art in London, as by 1891 she was living in lodgings in Chelsea, London, working as an artist and art teacher.
As an artist, she produced etchings and engravings on copper, as well as watercolour paintings and pen and ink drawings, with a specialism toward detailed architectural subjects, including studies from her travels in Italy, France, Bavaria, as well as in Britain.
Adeline exhibited her artwork extensively over a 30 year period, from 1896 onward, including on over 20 occasions with the Royal Academy. She also exhibited with the Society of Women Artists, the London Salon, the Royal Scottish Academy, Goupil Gallery, Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, and the Royal Hibernian Academy. She also exhibited with the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, who elected her an Associate Member in 1904.
By 1911 Adeline was living alone in her own home in the fashionable Cheyne Walk area of Chelsea, alongside the River Thames. The artwork above, in a private collection, is a likely view from her own window.
St. Ambrose, Milan. Circa 1920. Image: British Museum.
The British Museum have three print etchings by her (all shown here) in their print collection, and her work was featured in The Studio, vol.23, 1901.
Towers of Chatres Cathedral. Image: British Museum
Toward the end of her life she lived in Surrey and died in a Dorking nursing home.