One highlight was her commission to provide twelve illustrations for the 1874 serialisation of Thomas Hardy's novel Far from the Madding Crowd in Cornhill Magazine.

[citation needed] While Vincent van Gogh was developing as an artist by studying English illustrated journals he was struck by Paterson's work in The Graphic.

[6][7] On 22 August 1874 she married William Allingham, Irish poet and editor of Fraser's Magazine, who was almost twice her age.

At age 41 she felt the pressure to support her 3 young children (14, 12, and 7) and stepped up the production of watercolour.

They became wildly popular, possibly because of the nostalgic needs of ex pats who went to faraway colonies or of those living in industrialising cities.

As well as landscapes, she completed several portraits, including one of Thomas Carlyle[citation needed] In 1890, Allingham became the first woman to be admitted as a full member of the Royal Watercolour Society.

At the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois she exhibited her work at the Palace of Fine Arts.