Daphne Allen was the daughter of Hugh Allen, and possibly the granddaughter of Ruskin’s publisher George Allen. She was educated at Streatham College for Girls and continued to live in that area of South London into adulthood.
While still a child, Allen produced watercolours inspired by the New Testament, published in 1912 by George Allen as A Child’s Visions. The same year, they were exhibited as A Child’s Visions and Fancies at the Dudley Galleries. In 1913, a second group was published as The Birth of the Opal; A Child’s Fancies, and again exhibited at the Dudley Galleries.
Through her teens, Allen illustrated volumes by other authors for Headley Brothers: John Oxenham’s The Cradle of Our Lord (1916), A Garden of Love from Herrick & the Other Poets of the 17th Century (1917), and Janet Dykes and Christine Standing’s The Man Who Chose Poverty – The Story of St Francis (1917). She also exhibited alongside Annie French and others at the Burlington Gallery in December 1919. Later exhibitions include one of ‘landscapes and imaginative watercolours’ at B F Stevens & Brown (1928) and another of paintings at the Little Burlington Gallery (1937).
