Howard Helmick

Howard Helmick (1845 in Zanesville – 28 April 1907 in Washington, D.C.) was an American painter, etcher, designer and illustrator, who was well known for his oil on canvas paintings. He specialized in figure painting and engravings. He was best known for his Irish genre studies, and paintings of Irish households.

Helmick was born in Zanesville, Ohio, in 1840. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts under Peter Rothermel. He then moved to Paris in 1854 and trained alongside Henry Bacon at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, under the artist Alexandre Cabanel. "He devoted himself to genre painting, using as topics for his greatest works the scenes from peasant life of Ireland. In this particular style of work he became famous. He gained admission to the Beaux Arts, the most famous school of art in Paris, being the second foreigner who was ever received there". He also presented his paintings at the Paris Salon. He then moved to London in 1872.

Helmick lived in London for 15 years, from 1872 to 1887. He would regularly visit Ireland to make paintings on rural Irish life, and Irish households, from his studios at the counties Cork and Galway. Throughout his stretch in London, he repeatedly exhibited in a number of Art societies, such as London’s Royal Academy, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the Royal Society of Painters-Etchers and Engravers, the Society of British Artists, and the Royal Society of Artists in Birmingham. He also exhibited his works at the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, the Royal Hibernian Academy, the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and Manchester City Art Gallery. Thus, he became established as a painter and etcher and was elected a member of Society of British Artists in 1879, and the Royal Society of Painters-Etchers and Engravers in 1881.

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