Helen Turner

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.

Life and career 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. She was the great-granddaughter of John Pintard 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 attended the Art Students League (where she was accepted despite being, at thirty-seven, beyond the age limit for admittance), Kenyon Cox, William Merritt Chase and Douglas Volk. Her sister Laurette ("Lettie") , a textile artist, came to New York with her. Her sister Lettie died in 1920; in 1926 she returned to New Orleans and resettled there, traveling north only for her summer sojourns.

A handful of Turner's paintings were executed in her quarters in Manhattan, but the bulk of them were created during her summer sojourns at Cragsmoor.

An undated portrait of Turner by Maria Judson Strean is in the collection of the National Academy of Design.