Helen Mabel Trevor, Figure Painter

(b. 1831, d. 1900)

Figure Painter

From A Dictionary of Irish Artists 1913

Helen Mabel Trevor. Picture, by Herself; in the National Gallery of Ireland.

Eldest daughter of Edward Hill Trevor, of Lisnagead, near Loughbrickland, Co. Down, where she was born on 20th December, 1831. From her childhood she showed a gift for art, and at the age of 8 her nursery walls were decorated with her drawings. As her talent became more marked her father fitted up a studio for her, and there she worked, doing portraits, sketches of dogs, etc.; and she ventured to send two pictures to the Dublin Exhibition of 1853: "The Youthful Mechanic," and a "Portrait of William III." In 1854 she had a "Sketch from Life" in the Royal Hibernian Academy. She received no teaching until after her father's death, when she became a student at the Royal Academy; and after remaining there four years she went to Paris and studied under Carolus Duran and Henner. About 1883 she went to Italy, and after a stay of six years she returned to Paris in 1889. For ten years she was a regular exhibitor at the Salon and other exhibitions in France, and occasionally in the Royal Academy and the Royal Hibernian Academy. She died suddenly, of heart disease, in her studio, 55 Rue du Cherche Midi, Paris, on 3rd April, 1900. Her portrait, painted by herself, is in the National Gallery of Ireland, where are also two pictures by her, "The Fisherman's Mother," and "Interior of a Breton Cottage."

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