Helen M. Turner (American, 1858-1958, act. New Orleans, 1880-1893, 1926-1949 , "Portrait of Newcomb College Artist", oil on canvas, signed lower right, 24in. x 18in. E20000-30000 Note: Helen Turner grew up in New Orleans and first started painting at age 22 with the New Orleans Artist Association. In 1895, with the encouragement of her teacher Brors Wikstrom, she moved to New York City to study at the Art Students League. She taught art and continued her studies at Cooper Union and Columbia. Among her important mentors and teachers were Kenyon Cox, Douglas Volk and William Merritt Chase. Turner exhibited at most of the major museum annuals in the country, including those held by the Corcoran Gallery, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the National Academy of Design, of which she was the third woman (following Cecilia Beaux and Lydia Field Emmet) to become a full Academician in 1921 She was also a leading member ofthe summer art colony in Cragsmoor, New York, which included Charles Courtney Curran, Edward Lamson Henry and Edward Gay. Although she lived in New York for most of the rest of her life, Turner returned to New Orleans to visit often. She participated in organizations nurturing artists in the city, and jurored several exhibitions with contemporaries William and Ellsworth Woodward. This portrait of a Newcomb Artist being offered is exemplary of her impressionist style with quick short strokes and thick impasto. She is thought by many tobe one of America's most important women artists. Ref: Historic New Orleans Collection. Provenance: Descended in the family of the artist