Discover the untold story of seven remarkable sisters who helped shape the 19th-century cultural spirit. Step into the vivid, unconventional world of Women of Influence: The Pattle Sisters, an exhibition at Watts Gallery in Surrey.
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.
A new book accompanies the exhibition Women of Influence: The Pattle Sisters at Watts Gallery, which is the first to explore the lives, influence, and legacy of the seven Pattle sisters: Adeline, Julia, Sara, Mia, Louisa, Virginia and Sophia. Born and raised in India and educated in France, the sisters became renowned for their wit, talent, style and the influential artistic salons they hosted at Little Holland House in London.
Drawing on new research, and featuring essays by Emily Burns, Caroline Dakers, Gursimran Oberoi, William Dalrymple, Jeff Rosen and Marion Dell, this book reveals how the Pattle sisters helped shape nineteenth-century art, ideas and society in ways that continue to reverberate today.
Women of Influence: The Pattle Sisters
until 4 May 2026
Watts Gallery, Down Lane, Compton, Surrey, GU3 1DQ
See: https://www.wattsgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/women-of-influence-the-pattle-sisters
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