biography of Helen Maria TURNER (1858-1958)

Birth place: Louisville, KY

Death place: New Orleans, LA

Addresses: New York City (from c.1896); New Orleans, LA (early 1930s-on)

Profession: Painter, miniature painter

Studied: New Orleans AA, with A. Molinary, Brors A. Wickstrom, late 1880s-early 90s; ASL, With Kenyon Cox, S. Douglas Volk, 1895-99; CUA School, 1898-1901, 1904-05, with S.Douglas Volk; Columbia, 1899-1900; Wm. M. Chase, in Europe, 1904-05, 1911.

Exhibited: NYWCC, 1897; PAFA Ann., 1898-1933; SAA (Min.P.), 1900; Milch Gal., NYC, 1917 (first solo); New York Women's AC, 1921 (prize); NAWA (prize); NAD, 1913 (prize), 1921 (prize), 1927 (prize); AIC, 1913 (prize); NAC, 1922 (prize), 1927 (gold); Pennsylvania Soc. Min. P.; Grand Central AG; Corcoran Gal biennials, 1914-30 (8 times); St. Louis AM, 1917; New Orleans Mus.of Art, 1948; traveling retrospective to Cragsmoor Library, Akron AM, Jersey City Mus., and Owensboro MFA, KY, 1983-84.

Member: ANA, 1913; NA, 1921 (third woman to be elected to full academician status); NYWCC; NAC; APPL; SSAL; NOACC; NOAA; AWCS.

Work: MMA; CGA; Detroit Inst.; Nat. AC; PMG; Houston Art Mus.; Norfolk Mus., VA; Newark Art Mus.; Highland Park Soc. Arts, Dallas; Montclair Art Mus.; Jersey City Mus.; New York Hist. Soc.; Sweet Briar College; Rockford AA; Zigler Mus.; Detroit IA; NOMA; Syracuse; Akron Art Mus.; High Mus.; Speed Mus.; Tweed Mus., Duluth; Brooks G., Memphis; Montgomery MFA.

Comments: An Impressionist painter of landscapes, figures, and portraits, she was also part of the revival of miniature painting during the late 1890s-1910s. She spent summers at Cragsmoor, NY, 1906-26, then moved to New Orleans in the early 1930s, and painted past age 90. Position: art instructor, St. Mary's Acad., Dallas, TX, 1893-94; teacher, YMCA Art School, NYC, 1902-19.

Sources: WW53; Natl Cycl. Am. Biog. (p.114); Who"s Who in the South (1950, p.926); Who"s Who in Am (1937-38, p.2455); exh. cat., Cragsmoor Free Lib., NY (1983); Tufts, American Women Artists, cat. no. 56; Petteys, Dictionary of Women Artists; Falk, Exh. Record Series.