Helen Maria Turner (1858 - 1958)

Born 13 Nov 1858 in Louisville, Jefferson, Kentucky, United States

Ancestors

Died 31 Jan 1958 at age 99 in New Orleans, Orleans, Louisiana, United States

Biography

Helen Turner is Notable.

Helen was born in 1858. She was the daughter of Mortimer Turner and Helen Davidson. She was a painter nd lived in New Orleans for most of her life. She passed away in 1958, ten months short of turning 100.

Helen Turner (artist) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Helen Maria Turner (November 13, 1858 – January 31, 1958) was an American painter and teacher known for her work in oils, watercolors and pastels in which she created miniatures, landscapes, still lifes and portraits, often in an Impressionist style.

Turner was born in Louisville, Kentucky while her parents, Mortimer Turner and Helen Maria Davidson, were on a long visit to family in the town. Her lineage was respectable; she was the great-granddaughter of John Pintard (1759-1844) of New York, granddaughter of a well-known doctor from New Orleans, and daughter of a wealthy Louisiana businessman. Turner spent much of her early life between Alexandria, Louisiana and New Orleans, and early became a refugee from the American Civil War, which destroyed her father's fortune and led to the loss of his business. Her mother died in 1865 after a long illness; her father's death when she was thirteen left her in the care of a widowed uncle in New Orleans who lived in "genteel poverty".

Turner began painting at twenty-two; her early works were portraits and bayou landscapes. Initially self-taught, she began taking free classes offered by Tulane University, continuing under the tutelage of Andres Molinary and Bror Anders Wikstrom; she also studied at the Artists' Association of New Orleans. The death of her uncle in 1890 meant that she had to support herself, and she took a position teaching art at St. Mary's Institute, a girls' school in Dallas, Texas, beginning in 1893. She moved to New York City in 1895, for further study and attended the Art Students League (where she was accepted despite being, at thirty-seven, beyond the age limit for admittance), Cooper Union and Columbia University; her teachers included Arthur Wesley Dow, Kenyon Cox, William Merritt Chase and Douglas Volk. Her sister Laurette ("Lettie"), a textile artist, came to New York with her. Turner traveled with Chase and his class to Italy in 1904, 1905, and 1911, but otherwise appears to have shown scant interest in studying abroad, unlike other American Impressionists.

Turner taught at the YWCA for seventeen years, starting with a newly created class on costume design. Beginning in 1906 she summered at the artists' colony in Cragsmoor, New York, to which she was introduced by Charles Courtney Curran; she continued there with few interruptions until 1941. In her early years there she rented space, but in 1910 she built a home and studio called Takusan. Her sister Lettie died in 1920; in 1926 she returned to New Orleans and resettled there, traveling north only for her summer sojourns. In New Orleans she continued to teach at the Arts and Crafts Club, where her subject was draped-model drawing. She was elected an associate of the National Academy of Design in 1913, receiving 61 out of 64 votes, and was elected a full member in 1921, only the third woman to achieve the distinction and one of the first Academicians from the Southern United States. Furthermore, in 1916 William T. Evans nominated her an Artist Life Member of the National Arts Club; there, too, she was one of the first women accorded the honor. She continued to paint into the 1930s, but her eyesight gradually deteriorated; eventually she developed cataracts, and she was unable to paint at all after 1949.

Turner lived to be nearly 100. She was buried at Metairie Cemetery; the funeral was held at Trinity Episcopal Church.

Sources

• Ann B. Dobie, "Helen Maria Turner," 64 Parishes. Published: September 11, 2012; Updated: January 12, 2017
• Wikipedia: Helen Turner (artist)
• Helen M Turner at The Morris Museum of Art
• Helen Maria Turner at Greenville County Museum of Art
• Helen Maria Turner at AskArt
• Helen Turner: The Johnson Collection
• Helen Maria Turner at WorldCat
• FamilySearch Person: G8L1-HKL
• "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MZBF-QLF : 18 February 2021), Hellen Turner in entry for M Turner, 1860.
• "United States Census, 1870", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M87H-TH3 : 29 May 2021), Helen Turner in entry for Mary Turner, 1870.
• Metairie Cemetery; New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana, United States of America, citing Find A Grave: Memorial #125092584.