Clementina Fleeming was born in Glasgow in 1822. The daughter of Admiral Charles Fleeming, she married Cornwallis Maude, the 4th Viscount Harwarden, in 1841. Over the next few years she had ten children (1846-64).

Clementina began taking photographs in 1857. Her primary subjects were her three eldest daughters and the family estate in Ireland. A member of the Royal Photographic Society, she won silver medals for her work in 1863 and 1864. Lady Clementina Hawarden died of pneumonia in South Kensington in 1865.