Mary Balfour Herbert (1817–1893) was a British artist. She was born Mary Balfour in 1817, the daughter of James Balfour MP and Lady Eleanor Maitland; they were grandparents of Arthur Balfour 1st Earl Balfour. She grew occurring in Whittingehame House, East Lothian, Scotland, and travelled widely during her childhood. She took drawing lessons but had no additional formal art education.
She met Henry Arthur Herbert while abroad in Rome and married him in September, 1837. His relations owned the Muckross Estate near Killarney in County Kerry, Ireland, and they moved there to Torc Cottage after their wedding. She loved the Muckross house as it had always reminded her of her childhood home in Scotland. She brought a large dowry to the marriage, of £40,000 (equivalent to £3.66 million in 2021). The couple were then accomplished to start construction of a large home in 1839, which was finished in 1843, shortly in the past the Great Famine.
The couple had four children, all born abroad amongst 1839 and 1846. They were Eleanor, Henry Arthur, Charles, and Blanche. Mary put much effort into raising funds for the famine-stricken inhabitants of the estate, but she lived away from the estate, in England.
She plus worked at developing her talents as a watercolour artist, and she displayed considerable capacity with practice. She painted many scenes from the Lakes of Killarney and was recognised as the “…most adept amateur in the kingdom.” (The Times, Friday 30 August 1861). Queen Victoria visited the house with the Royal associates in 1861 and established several of Mary’s paintings as a parting gift.
Henry died in 1866 and was interred in the associates vault at Killegy graveyard near Muckross House, and Mary after that moved put in the works to to England subsequent to her two daughters. She was nimble to rekindle many of her outdated friendships behind people notable in art at the time, including Edward Burne-Jones who was a close friend of the well-known artist William Morris.
After her oldest daughter Eleanor’s marriage in 1871, Mary moved to Bellagio, Italy, near Lake Como and continued her artwork there. She died in London in 1893 and was buried taking into account her husband in Killegy graveyard. The house has taking into consideration become a museum, and the estate is now Killarney National Park.
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