Husband Roger Fry
Queer Places:
Friends Burial Ground
York, York Unitary Authority, North Yorkshire, England
Helen Coombe (March 23, 1864 -
April 30, 1937) was a painter and decorative
artist. After Virginia Woolf's
biography of Roger Fry was
published in 1940, she received a letter from
Mary Louisa Gordon
strongly critical of her portrayal of Roger's wife, the artist Helen
Coombe, and even more critical of Roger's character and conduct. Mary
and Helen had been friends before the latter married in 1896 and went on
to develop severe mental health problems. In 1936 the Woolfs had
published Mary's historical novel, Chase of the Wild Goose, about the
Ladies of Llangollen. Virginia Woolf, in letters to Ethel Smyth, calls
Gordon “the Hermaphrodite”.
Helen Coombe was born in Lee, Kent, the daughter of a corn merchant, Joseph
Coombe (1827-1883) and Laura Beaumont Russell (1831-1903). She married
painter Roger Fry and had three children, twins Julian Edward Fry and
Agnes Pamela Fry, and Sebastian E. Fry.
My published books:
BACK TO HOME PAGE
- Virginia Woolf and “the Hermaphrodite”: A Feminist Fan of Orlando and
Critic of Roger Fry, Martin Ferguson Smith, Pages 277-297