Héléna Arsène Darmesteter

Héléna Arsène Darmesteter
Self-portrait
Born	1854 London
Died	1923
Nationality	British

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.[1] Her sister was Cécile Hartog, the English composer and pianist. Her brothers were Marcus Hartog, Numa Edward Hartog and Philip Hartog, and her husband's brother James Darmesteter married the poet A. Mary F. Robinson.

Her parents ran a French boarding school where Héléna learned to speak French. She later studied painting in Paris under Gustave Courtois,[2] where she met her husband Arsène Darmesteter. She became a successful portrait painter, exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1891 and 1894 and at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900.[3] She also showed works at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions in 1907 and 1908.[2] She was a member of the Société des Artistes Français and of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.[2] Cécile Hartog,

Her self-portrait and a study of a woman before a mirror were included in the 1905 book Women Painters of the World.[4]

• 
  Portrait of cousin Sarah Marks (later called Hertha Ayrton)
• 
  Study of a woman before a mirror

References

1. Marion Moss in the Jewish Women's Archive
2. W.M Schwab, ed. (1987). Jewish Artists The Ben Uri Collection. Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd / Ben Uri Art Society. ISBN 0-85331-537-X.
3. The Royal Academy of Arts; a complete dictionary of contributors and their work from its foundation in 1769 to 1904
4. 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

External links

• An artwork by Héléna Arsène Darmestete at the Ben Uri site