Helena de Kay
Today is the last day of Women's History Month. On this occasion, we have something exquisite for you, the paint box of Helena de Kay.
Helena de Kay is better known for her role as a cultural tastemaker in the late 19th-century New York art world than for her paintings ... but she was also an artist. This item is evidence of her artistic practice as a student at the National Academy of Design in the 1870s (and possibly earlier); it reveals much about training for women at the time. The study in the paint box dates the work to 1871, the year when life classes were first open to women at the Academy.
The artist often did the accompanying illustrations for books of poetry by her husband, Richard Watson Gilder. Her impact on the art world, however, spread beyond her own art production. She contributed to the art world by helping to organize the Arts Student League in 1875 and co-found the Society of American Artists in 1887, which provided younger classically trained artists with the opportunity to be a part of an alternative association. Her leading presence was directly responsible for the large number of women involved in those organizations. She was also a muse and romantic interest of Winslow Homer; they spent a considerable amount of time together, and it is their correspondence that indicates that Winslow made multiple attempts to pursue her romantically.
Women's History Month is ending but we won't stop featuring often-forgotten women artists in DailyArt. Stay tuned! Remember that there are always many stories on well-known and forgotten women artists in DailyArt Magazine. :)
P.S. Check out our Women Artists Notebook, full of bios and art made by women.