15 Facts About Helen Coombe

Helen Coombe, known after her 1896 marriage to Roger Fry as Helen Fry, was a British artist.

Helen Coombe was the eighth of the 12 children of the corn merchant Joseph Coombe of Waterford, who married in 1853 Laura Beaumont Russell, daughter of the surgeon George Ireland Russell of Milton-next-Gravesend, Kent; the surgeon Russell Coombe was her elder brother.

Helen Coombe associated with the circle around Century Guild of Artists, a small group founded by Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo, based in London at 20 Fitzroy Square.

At some time in her student days, at earliest in 1886, Helen Coombe met and befriended Mary Gordon.

On Gordon's authority, Martin Ferguson Smith believes that Helen Coombe spent a student year in Paris, in the period 1891 to 1894; she returned malnourished, according to Gordon, who qualified as a physician in 1890.

Helen Coombe worked in Haslemere, Surrey, where Arnold Dolmetsch had his musical instrument workshop.

Helen Coombe Fry suffered from deteriorating mental health, and had Henry Head as consultant.

Helen Coombe was hospitalised for treatment at The Priory in 1907 and 1909.

Helen Coombe died there, an autopsy revealing a thickening of the skull to which her illness was attributed.

Helen Coombe married Roger Fry on 3 December 1896 at the Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great in London.

Helen Coombe gained presumed painting commissions through associations with the Church of Humanity in Chapel Street, Belgravia.

Helen Coombe painted her friend Lucy Crompton, wife of Henry Crompton.

An art student perhaps until 1895, Helen Coombe exhibited at the New English Art Club.

Helen Coombe designed a stained-glass window on the subject of Martha and Mary, for St John the Evangelist Church, High Cross, East Hertfordshire.

Helen Coombe painted the inside of the lid, using her own designs, while Herbert Horne added a design above the keyboard, and Selwyn Image the lettering.