Héléna Arsène Darmesteter, born Héléna Hartog (1854 – 1923) was a British portrait painter.

Biography

Darmesteter was born in London as the daughter of a French school teacher and the editor of the first Jewish women's periodical, Marion Hartog Moss. Her sister was

Cécile Hartog Cécile Sarah Hartog (1857–1940) was an English composer and pianist, born in London. She was the daughter of French school teacher, author and editor Marion Moss Hartog, and her siblings were the artist Héléna Arsène Darmesteter, natur ...

, the English composer and pianist. Her brothers were

Marcus Hartog Marcus Manuel Hartog (19 August 1851, London – 21 January 1924, Paris) was an English educator, natural historian, philosopher of biology and zoologist in Cork, Ireland. He contributed to multiple volumes of the ''Cambridge Natural History''. L ...

Numa Edward Hartog Numa Edward Hartog (20 May 1846 – 19 June 1871) was a Jewish British mathematician who attracted attention in 1869 for graduating from Cambridge University as Senior Wrangler and Smith's Prizeman but as a Jew had not been admitted to a fello ...

and Philip Hartog, and her husband's brother James Darmesteter married the poet

A. Mary F. Robinson Agnes Mary Frances Robinson (known as Agnes-Marie-François Darmesteter after her first marriage, and Agnes Mary Frances Duclaux after her second; 27 February 1857 – 9 February 1944) was a poet, novelist, essayist, literary critic, and translat ...

. Her parents ran a French boarding school where Héléna learned to speak French. She later studied painting in Paris under Gustave Courtois, where she met her husband Arsène Darmesteter. She became a successful portrait painter, exhibiting at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

in 1891 and 1894 and at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900. She also showed works at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions in 1907 and 1908. She was a member of the Société des Artistes Français and of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.

, Her self-portrait and a study of a woman before a mirror were included in the 1905 book '' Women Painters of the World''.
Women painters of the world, from the time of Caterina Vigri, 1413-1463, to Rosa Bonheur and the present day
', by Walter Shaw Sparrow, The Art and Life Library, Hodder & Stoughton, 27 Paternoster Row, London, 1905 File:Helena Arsène Darmesteter - Portrait of Hertha Ayrton.jpg, Portrait of cousin Sarah Marks (later called Hertha Ayrton) File:Héléna Arsène Darmesteter - Study.jpg, Study of a woman before a mirror

References

External links

An artwork by Héléna Arsène Darmestete
at th
Ben Uri
site 1854 births 1923 deaths 19th-century English painters 19th-century English women artists 20th-century English painters 20th-century English women artists British Jews British people of French descent British portrait painters English women painters Jewish painters Jewish women artists Painters from London {{UK-painter-19thC-stub