Helena de Kay Gilder

American painter and illustrator, 1846–1916

BiographyBorn 1856 in New York City, Helena de Kay Gilder was an American painter, illustrator, and cultural tastemaker. She started her studies in art at the Cooper Union Institute and continued her education at the National Academy of Design when life classes opened to women. In 1875, Gilder helped organize the Arts Student League and co-founded the Society of American Artists in 1887.

Helena de Kay Gilder and her husband Richard Watson Gilder were at the center of the world of arts and letters in Gilded Age New York. Her brother Charles de Kay was an important art critic in the late 19th and early 20th century. She met her husband in the office of Scribner’s Monthly, where he worked as managing editor. He was also a poet.

As an artist, Helena de Kay Gilder specialized in images of nature, especially flowers, some of which appeared as illustrations in Scribner’s and in books of poetry by her husband and others in his circle.

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