Women of Influence: The Pattle Sisters

G.F Watts, Sisters also known as Sophia Dalrymple and Sara Prinsep (detail), ca.1851, Watts Gallery, Woking.

This exhibition brings to life the legacy of seven extraordinary Anglo-Indian sisters whose influence rippled through the worlds of art, literature, photography, and society.

Nicknamed “Pattledom” by the writer William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863), the sisters’ world was one of rich cross-cultural exchange, where Anglo-Indian heritage, European influence, and artistic experimentation converged in a vibrant social sphere that defied Victorian convention.

Whilst the photographer Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–1879) is today the most celebrated of the seven Pattle sisters, this exhibition uncovers their collective impact through artistic experimentation, intellectual exchange, and the creation of an extraordinary cultural salon at Little Holland House in Kensington. Here, artists, writers, scientists, musicians, and politicians gathered each week, drawn into the orbit of the dynamic Pattle women and the visionary painter G F Watts, who lived and worked amongst them.

Through rarely seen portraits, evocative photographs, treasured possessions, and new research, visitors will meet the wider sisterhood and discover how their influence extended from Calcutta, India (now Kolkata) to Kensington, and from the salons of Little Holland House to the Bloomsbury Group.