About this objectWhite ceramic bust of Henrietta Pilkington. Plaster bust, head of young woman with Greco-Roman hairstyle. Crude inscription "H.Pilkington" at back, with other engraved marks each side, "C R Summers/ 1875" on right side.
Henrietta Pilkington was born in Ireland. Like her friend and fellow artist Margaret Thomas, there is some ambiguity surrounding her date of birth.
Pilkington met Margaret Thomas in London in the 1870s. With Thomas, Henrietta Pilkington had contact with Charles Summers, who completed this plaster bust of her in 1875, on the back of which her age is recorded as 27. From the 1880s onwards it seems that Henrietta Pilkington and Margaret Thomas lived and travelled together. On their travels, which are largely documented by Thomas's books, Henrietta Pilkington completed a large collection of watercolors. The loose style and limited pallet used in these works indicates that they were done hurriedly in situ, therefore creating an excellent record of their travels together. Margaret Thomas and Henrietta Pilkington's close relationship is immortalised on their headstone. Underneath Henrietta Pilkington's name it reads "The sweetest soul that ever looked with human eyes. Friends for sixty years.".
