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Ad Code: 4
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An example of work by Helen Adelia Sackett Curdy
Artwork images are copyright of the artist or assignee
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
| Helen Adelia Curdy 1838-1910
Lived in Kansas. Known for coastal scenes with boats and forest scenes.
Helen Curdy was born Helen Adelia Sackett in Chautauqua County, New
York on December 27, 1838 probably in the town of Mayville. Her
father Judge Russell Sackett practiced law in Mayville until 1848 when he
ventured West and became one of the original "49ers". During his
journeys he encountered many adventures and eventually settled in Los
Angeles, California.
The young Miss Sackett met and married William Wilson Curdy in 1859, and
then resided in Painesville, Ohio. In 1867 the growing Curdy
family moved to Humboldt, Kansas. In 1886 the family moved to
Topeka, Kansas, where William Curdy became quite successful in business
and the family became quite prominent in the community.
Helen Curdy's early artistic training is not well known. It seems
she took up painting later in life. The earliest known dated painting,
a watercolor, is dated 1888. Curdy was talented painter of both
watercolor and oil paintings. The watercolors, done in an
impressionist style were, interestingly enough, mostly scenes of
small boats in the water or along a shoreline. The inspiration
for this may have been trips to California as one of her paintings
depicts San Fransisco Bay and the Golden Gate. There is a known example
of a most spectacular watercolor of a forest scene, but this is
considered more unusual. These watercolors of waters with boats
have a distinctive look that include prominently greys, blues, rusty
reds, blacks with an almost smokey like feel.
In contrast Curdy's oil paintings were almost always forest scenes and
were done in a realist style. These are overall more darker in colors
and scenes. Interestingly, the oil paintings often have some kind
of water included in them such as a pond or a stream.
Curdy's paintings are almost always signed H. A. Curdy, although a
simple signature of H.A.C. has also been observed. Many are also dated,
but some are neither signed nor dated.
Helen A. Curdy continued painting right up until the time of her death
on December 27, 1910 at 3644 Troost Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri. She is buried in the Curdy family plot in the
Evergreen Cemetery, Painesville Township, Ohio.
Submitted January 2006 by Scott Wilder, art researcher specializing in
artists of Kansas. The research for this biography is from
internet searches and began with his attending an estate sale of Isabel Curdy, one of
the artist's grandchildren in Kansas City, Missouri in August
2005. According to Wilder, "It was a three-story house and
literally every wall on all three floors had paintings done by
Curdy."
Additional information and corrections were submitted by Randal J. Loy, with his source being the artist's death certificate.
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