A watercolour of an old man seated by a fire smoking a pipe. Signed. Helen Allingham began her career as an illustrator, but focused on watercolour painting following her marriage to the Irish poet William Allingham in 1874. Her paintings of scenes of rural life, such as this one, were particularly esteemed. A few years before her death, Allingham was commissioned to produce a miniature work for the Library in Queen Mary's Doll House (RCIN 926788).