Howard Eaton Helmick - Artist

Howard Eaton Helmick was born in Ohio and trained at the Ohio Mechanics Institute in Cincinnati, and subsequently at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He moved to Paris and studied under the guidance of Alexandre Cabanel at L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He exhibited at the Paris Salons, and he became acquainted with the renowned American impressionist painter Mary Cassat. Both artists showed work at the Salon in Paris in 1869. By 1872 Helmick had left France for London and Ireland. He began exhibiting at London's Royal Academy, in 1873 and started his great Irish series. By 1879 he was elected as member of the Society of British Artists, and by 1881 the Society of Painter Etchers. He quickly established himself by exhibiting at the major British galleries. He was close friends with other American exiles such as James McNeill Whistler. Helmick moved to Washington, D.C., in 1887. There he was active in the Society of Washington Artists, the Washington Water Colour Club and the Washington Society of Fine Arts. As a Professor of the Philosophy and History of Art, Helmick taught painting and drawing at the Art Students League of Washington, at Georgetown University and in his Georgetown studio. He simultaneously exhibited at the national Academy of Design, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Brooklyn Art Association. He was even represented at the Paris Exposition of 1900. Helmick also contributed illustrations to The Century Magazine and Harper’s Magazine and is represented in the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the National Museum of American Art. He died in 1907 at his home in Georgetown Washington.