Helena Wood Smith (March 9, 1865 – August 1914) was an American artist.
Helena Wood Smith | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 9, 1865 Bangor, Maine, U.S. |
| Died | August 1914 (aged 49) |
| Cause of death | Strangulation |
| Education | Pratt Institute |
| Partner | George Kodani |
| Relatives | Ruel Perley Smith (brother) |
Early life and education
editHelena Wood Smith was born on March 9, 1865, in Bangor, Maine. She was the sister of novelist, Ruel Perley Smith. Helena attended the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.
Career
editBy 1912, she had moved to Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, and was the instructor of "drawing and painting from nature" at the local School of Arts & Crafts.[1] She exhibited at the San Francisco Art Association (1910–1913), Carmel Arts & Crafts Club (1913), and the Hotel Del Monte Art Gallery (1911–13).
Part of her early exhibition history includes the: Boston Art Club (1893–1900), Annuals of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (1896–1897), Water Color Club of Washington, D.C. (1902), and Annual of the Art Club of Philadelphia (1900).[2] At the latter, her entry was entitled "Merestead, Gardens of the Pilgrims".[3] Smith was also discussed in Corelli C. W. Simpson's Leaflet of Artists (J.W. Bacon, 1893).
Personal life
editIn August 1914, she was strangled and buried on the beach by her lover, Japanese art-photographer George Kodani, who was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.[1][4]
References
edit- ^ a b Edwards, Robert W. (2012). Jennie V. Cannon: The Untold History of the Carmel and Berkeley Art Colonies, Vol. 1. Oakland, Calif.: East Bay Heritage Project. pp. 135–136, 141–148, 636, 691. ISBN 9781467545679. An online facsimile of the entire text of Vol. 1 is posted on the Traditional Fine Arts Organization website ("Jennie V. Cannon: The Untold History of the Carmel and Berkeley Art Colonies, vol. One, East Bay Heritage Project, Oakland, 2012; by Robert W. Edwards". Archived from the original on 2016-04-29. Retrieved 2016-06-07.).
- ^ American Art Annual 4, 1903-04, p. II-68.
- ^ The Catalog of the Annual Exhibition of the Penn. Academy of Fine Arts (1896), v. 66-67; Catalog of the Annual Exhibition of Oil Paintings and Sculpture, Art Club of Philadelphia (1900), v. 9-17
- ^ Edan Hughes, Artists in California, 786-1940 (San Francisco: Crocker Art Museum, 2002)