Laura Anne Herford (1831 - 1870)

RA Collection: People and Organisations

British artist. Herford was the first woman to be admitted to the Royal Academy Schools. She was admitted aged 29 on 21 December 1860 to study painting, having been recommended by Thomas Heatherley, at who’s private art school she had previously studied.

Here is a link to her entry in the RA Schools Register.

Herford’s mother was the landscape painter and educator Sarah Smith Herford (1818-c.1870), and her niece with the artist Helen Allingham (1848-1926).

She exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1861, 1864, 1865, 1866 and 1867; a total of 6 works.