DOI Heft:
No. 223 (October 1911)
DOI Artikel:Blattner, E. J.: Helen Hyde: an American painter in Japan
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21155#0073
Helen Hyde
HELEN HYDE, AN AMERICAN poured forth its daily stream of Oriental life and
ARTIST IN JAPAN. BY E J colour, and the young artist, gifted with an un-
BLATTNER usually keen and sensitive appreciation of colour,
found ample inspiration for a happy brush. The
When Japanese colour-prints were first ex- streets were full of strange types, suggestive of the
hibited in Europe some forty or more years ago mysterious splendours of the Orient, rousing her
and took the Western world by storm, few realised desire to study these at closer range. Tiny
how far-reaching their influence was to become, moon-faced children, resplendent in gorgeous
Time, instead of diminishing their charm, has only brocades and lustrous satins, led by gentle,
served to heighten it. Striking boldness of patient little mothers, whose tottering steps be-
design, wedded to perfect grace of line, exquisite trayed the time-honoured torture of bound
harmony of colour, marvellous adaptation of com- feet, were among her first subjects, and indi-
position to space, not to mention quaintness of cated from the very beginning the path she was
subject and context, have endeared them to artist to follow.
and layman alike. Helen Hyde's original studies along this line
A number of artists in Europe as well as in soon won favourable comment from the critics.
America have testified to their admiration by A busy life followed, her quick responsive pencil
adopting this form of art for the expression of vying with an equally sympathetic though more
some of their own ideas. Among these, Miss serious brush, while illustrations of the idea!
Helen Hyde, a gifted young American, takes high world of poetry alternated with sketches from life
rank, having won her success by whole-hearted under a somewhat fanciful guise. Finally there
devotion to her work. came a new impetus through the successful
Her early girlhood was spent in the home of handling of the etcher's needle,
a relative in San Francisco, a woman of fortune, Again the critics were loud in her praise. But
whose generous nature and enthusiastic love of art she herself was by no means satisfied with her
created a splendid environment for an ambitious achievement; and so we find her standing in
and clever young girl. And so, when the dream severe and disheartened self-criticism before a newly
of her girlhood was realised,
and the ateliers of Paris
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" "the lucky branch" (wood-engraving im colours) by helen~hyde
51
HELEN HYDE, AN AMERICAN poured forth its daily stream of Oriental life and
ARTIST IN JAPAN. BY E J colour, and the young artist, gifted with an un-
BLATTNER usually keen and sensitive appreciation of colour,
found ample inspiration for a happy brush. The
When Japanese colour-prints were first ex- streets were full of strange types, suggestive of the
hibited in Europe some forty or more years ago mysterious splendours of the Orient, rousing her
and took the Western world by storm, few realised desire to study these at closer range. Tiny
how far-reaching their influence was to become, moon-faced children, resplendent in gorgeous
Time, instead of diminishing their charm, has only brocades and lustrous satins, led by gentle,
served to heighten it. Striking boldness of patient little mothers, whose tottering steps be-
design, wedded to perfect grace of line, exquisite trayed the time-honoured torture of bound
harmony of colour, marvellous adaptation of com- feet, were among her first subjects, and indi-
position to space, not to mention quaintness of cated from the very beginning the path she was
subject and context, have endeared them to artist to follow.
and layman alike. Helen Hyde's original studies along this line
A number of artists in Europe as well as in soon won favourable comment from the critics.
America have testified to their admiration by A busy life followed, her quick responsive pencil
adopting this form of art for the expression of vying with an equally sympathetic though more
some of their own ideas. Among these, Miss serious brush, while illustrations of the idea!
Helen Hyde, a gifted young American, takes high world of poetry alternated with sketches from life
rank, having won her success by whole-hearted under a somewhat fanciful guise. Finally there
devotion to her work. came a new impetus through the successful
Her early girlhood was spent in the home of handling of the etcher's needle,
a relative in San Francisco, a woman of fortune, Again the critics were loud in her praise. But
whose generous nature and enthusiastic love of art she herself was by no means satisfied with her
created a splendid environment for an ambitious achievement; and so we find her standing in
and clever young girl. And so, when the dream severe and disheartened self-criticism before a newly
of her girlhood was realised,
and the ateliers of Paris
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" "the lucky branch" (wood-engraving im colours) by helen~hyde
51