Helen Maria Turner, N.A.(American/New Orleans, 1858-1958), "The Sisters", oil on canvas, signed lower right "Helen M. Turner, N.Y.", labels en verso from Corcoran Gallery 10th Exhibition of Contemporary American Oil Paintings 1926, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Twenty Third Annual Exhibition 1928, Los Angeles Museum Eleventh Annual Painters and Sculptors Exhibition, and Artist Label, 34 in. x 44 in., in a period Newcomb Macklin frame. Accompanied by eight preliminary pencil drawings on three pages (en recto of one page a letter on stationery from Devoe & Raynolds Co., Inc. to Helen Turner dated June 4, 1924), sizes 11 in. x 8 in., unframed. Together with a catalogue of the One-Hundred-And-Twenty-Third Annual Exhibition of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1928 with painting reproduced. E100000/150000 Note: This painting will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonn‚ of the artists work being compiled by Kaycee Benton Provenance: Collection of the artist, 1924-1936 High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia, 1936-1983 Ruth Albert Giriat (sister on right in the portrait), 1983-1988 Private Collection, 1988-present Exhibited: National Academy of Design, New York City, No. 401, 1925 Frank Rehn Gallery, New York City National Arts Club, 1925 Grand Central Art Galleries, New York City, 1926 Corcoran Gallery Annual Exhibition, Washington, D.C., 1926 (illustrated in exhibition catalogue) The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, One Man Exhibition 1926 Dallas Museum of Art, Texas, One Man Exhibition, 1927 Gordon Gallery, Detroit, Michigan, 1927 Norfolk Society of Arts Exhibition, Virginia, 1927 Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art One Hundred and Twenty-Third Annual Exhibition, (illustrated in exhibition catalogue, No. 332), 1927 High Museum of Art, Georgia, One-Man Exhibition, 1929 Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Eleventh Annual Painters and Sculptors Exhibition, California, 1930 Turner painted "The Sisters" in 1924 in her summer studio at the art colony at Cragsmoor, in the Shawangunk Mountains of upstate New York. Turner was introduced to Cragsmoor in 1906 by Charles Courtney Curran, and would summer there for 35 years. Among Turner's friends and neighbors at Cragsmoor were Mr. and Mrs. Martin Albert, whose daughters, Casey and Ruth, are depicted in "The Sisters". The couple were honored when the famous artist asked to use their daughters as models. The younger sister, Ruth, vividly recalled posing. Her parents had been so emphatic in impressing upon the girls the magnitude of this honor and that they must be good, that they were both a bit intimidated. The girls felt that the posing sessions lasted hours, although, in fact, they lasted no more than 45 minutes. They were not allowed to play in their white dresses which were washed and starched every day. "The Sisters" is characteristic of Turner's work: filled with softly lit colors which flicker brilliantly within the vivid highlights scattered throughout the thick impasto applications of colored patterns. Her paintings were strongly influenced by the works of Frederick Carl Frieseke, as well as William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri. Turner's art is considered the most innovative of all the artists who painted at Cragsmoor. For some time it was thought that Turner worked on her canvases without preliminary sketches. However, the eight pencil studies that she did for this painting prove otherwise. Studies for some of her other well-known paintings were also found in her studio at Cragsmoor. Helen Turner was elected to full Academician status by the National Academy of Design in 1921. She was the first Academician from Louisiana, one of the first from the entire South, and the third woman to ever receive this honor. Helen Turner was from a prominent Alexandria, Louisiana family with strong New Orleans ties. Off and on throughout her life Turner spent many winters in New Orleans, painting portraits as well as bayou landscapes She was active in New Orleans art groups and shared a weekend studio retreat with sculptor Angela Gregory. Turner moved to the city permanently in 1942, but her production dwindled with her deteriorating eyesight. In 1949 there was a special exhibition of Turner's paintings at the New Orleans Museum of Art in celebration of her 90th birthday. At the time, her style of painting was out of vogue Today Helen Turner's paintings are in noted museum collections where they are considered icons.