DOI article:
Blattner, E. J.: Helen Hyde, an American artist in Japan
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43448#0065
Helen Hyde
Helen hyde, an American
ARTIST IN JAPAN. BY E. J.
BLATTNER.
When Japanese colour-prints were first ex-
hibited in Europe some forty or more years ago
and took the Western world by storm, few realised
how far-reaching their influence was to become.
Time, instead of diminishing their charm, has only
served to heighten it. Striking boldness of
design, wedded to perfect grace of line, exquisite
harmony of colour, marvellous adaptation of com-
position to space, not to mention quaintness of
subject and context, have endeared them to artist
and layman alike.
A number of artists in Europe as well as in
America have testified to their admiration by
adopting this form of art for the expression of
some of their own ideas. Among these, Miss
Helen Hyde, a gifted young American, takes high
rank, having won her success by whole-hearted
devotion to her work.
Her early girlhood was spent in the home of
a relative in San Francisco, a woman of fortune,
whose generous nature and enthusiastic love of art
created a splendid environment for an ambitious
and clever young girl. And so, when the dream
of her girlhood was realised,
and the ateliers of Paris
poured forth its daily stream of Oriental life and
colour, and the young artist, gifted with an un-
usually keen and sensitive appreciation of colour,
found ample inspiration for a happy brush. The
streets were full of strange types, suggestive of the
mysterious splendours of the Orient, rousing her
desire to study these at closer range. Tiny
moon-faced children, resplendent in gorgeous
brocades and lustrous satins, led by gentle,
patient little mothers, whose tottering steps be-
trayed the time-honoured torture of bound
feet, were among her first subjects, and indi-
cated from the very beginning the path she was
to follow.
Helen Hyde’s original studies along this line
soon won favourable comment from the critics.
A busy life followed, her quick responsive pencil
vying with an equally sympathetic though more
serious brush, while illustrations of the ideal
world of poetry alternated with sketches from life
under a somewhat fanciful guise. Finally there
came a new impetus through the successful
handling of the etcher’s needle.
Again the critics were loud in her praise. But
she herself was by no means satisfied with her
achievement; and so we find her standing in
severe and disheartened self-criticism before a newly
were opened to her, she
entered them as one
familiar through education
and culture with the master-
pieces of the world.
For two years she studied
under the guidance of
Raffael Collin and then
went to Berlin for a year
with Skarbina, the clever
portrayer of out-of-door
scenes. Some months in
Holland served to perfect
her very excellent rendering
of artificial light and fire
effects. A visit to England
closed her European ap-
prenticeship, and she re-
turned to San Francisco
filled with the enthusiasm
of youth, and eager to test
her powers as an illustrator
and a painter in oils.
But those were the
days when “Chinatown”
; d ‘
“the lucky branch” (wood-engraving in colours)
BY HELEN HYDE
51
Helen hyde, an American
ARTIST IN JAPAN. BY E. J.
BLATTNER.
When Japanese colour-prints were first ex-
hibited in Europe some forty or more years ago
and took the Western world by storm, few realised
how far-reaching their influence was to become.
Time, instead of diminishing their charm, has only
served to heighten it. Striking boldness of
design, wedded to perfect grace of line, exquisite
harmony of colour, marvellous adaptation of com-
position to space, not to mention quaintness of
subject and context, have endeared them to artist
and layman alike.
A number of artists in Europe as well as in
America have testified to their admiration by
adopting this form of art for the expression of
some of their own ideas. Among these, Miss
Helen Hyde, a gifted young American, takes high
rank, having won her success by whole-hearted
devotion to her work.
Her early girlhood was spent in the home of
a relative in San Francisco, a woman of fortune,
whose generous nature and enthusiastic love of art
created a splendid environment for an ambitious
and clever young girl. And so, when the dream
of her girlhood was realised,
and the ateliers of Paris
poured forth its daily stream of Oriental life and
colour, and the young artist, gifted with an un-
usually keen and sensitive appreciation of colour,
found ample inspiration for a happy brush. The
streets were full of strange types, suggestive of the
mysterious splendours of the Orient, rousing her
desire to study these at closer range. Tiny
moon-faced children, resplendent in gorgeous
brocades and lustrous satins, led by gentle,
patient little mothers, whose tottering steps be-
trayed the time-honoured torture of bound
feet, were among her first subjects, and indi-
cated from the very beginning the path she was
to follow.
Helen Hyde’s original studies along this line
soon won favourable comment from the critics.
A busy life followed, her quick responsive pencil
vying with an equally sympathetic though more
serious brush, while illustrations of the ideal
world of poetry alternated with sketches from life
under a somewhat fanciful guise. Finally there
came a new impetus through the successful
handling of the etcher’s needle.
Again the critics were loud in her praise. But
she herself was by no means satisfied with her
achievement; and so we find her standing in
severe and disheartened self-criticism before a newly
were opened to her, she
entered them as one
familiar through education
and culture with the master-
pieces of the world.
For two years she studied
under the guidance of
Raffael Collin and then
went to Berlin for a year
with Skarbina, the clever
portrayer of out-of-door
scenes. Some months in
Holland served to perfect
her very excellent rendering
of artificial light and fire
effects. A visit to England
closed her European ap-
prenticeship, and she re-
turned to San Francisco
filled with the enthusiasm
of youth, and eager to test
her powers as an illustrator
and a painter in oils.
But those were the
days when “Chinatown”
; d ‘
“the lucky branch” (wood-engraving in colours)
BY HELEN HYDE
51