Aglaia Coronio

[1][2][3] Of Greek descent, she was the elder daughter of businessman and art collector Alexander Constantine Ionides, who had immigrated to London from Constantinople (present day Istanbul) in 1827.

[4] The Ionides family opened their home, 1 Holland Park, to London's artistic and intellectual circles.

Aglaia had a friendly personality and kept correspondence with many of these family friends, including Alma Tadema, John Stuart Mill, Ford Maddox Brown, Samuel Butler, Thomas Hood, Ellen Terry, Frederic Leighton, George Sand, William Wordsworth, Sir Edwin Landseer, John Ruskin, Beerbohm Tree, George du Maurier, and Fantin Latour, among others.

[5] Along with her cousins, Coronio modeled for many of the Pre-Raphaelite artists including Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, Holman Hunt, and John Millais.

Due to accounts of women like Jane Morris and Georgiana Burne-Jones occasionally working at the Kelmscott Press, it could be assumed that Aglaia Coronio, with her background in bookbinding, might have assisted as well.

[12] Although her embroidery has not been easily located, records report that her work was displayed during the Arts and Craft Exhibition on October 4, 1888 in the New Gallery.

In similar fashion to her older brother and father, Aglaia Coronio participated as a patron of the arts while she grew her collection of artwork.