A Song of Summer
1858-1958
Oil on canvas
30 1/8 in x 40 1/8 in
Circa 1915
Label:
An artist who did not receive professional recognition until her fifties, Helen Turner overcame personal setbacks to become the fourth female and first Louisianan to achieve the rank of full academician from the distinguished National Academy of Design in New York. Beginning in 1906, she spent her summers at the art colony in Cragsmoor, New York, where her seasonal residence became the light-filled setting for her best-known impressionistic work. One such painting, A Song of Summer, reveals Turner’s expertise in depicting the female figure outdoors. Here, a young woman strums a guitar against a sun-dappled woodsy background—a solitary moment of reverie in nature’s sitting room.
As Published In:
Scenic Impressions: Southern Interpretations from the Johnson Collection, 2015
Central to Their Lives: Southern Women Artists in the Johnson Collection, 2018
As Exhibited In:
Storied Strings: The Guitar in American Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, September 1, 2022–March 31, 2024
The League of Extraordinary Artists, Wofford College, Spartanburg, SC, September 3–December 13, 2024
Central to Their Lives: Southern Women Artists in the Johnson Collection, Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA, June 30–October 23, 2018, Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS, November 16, 2018–January 20, 2019, Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV, March 2–June 30, 2019, Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, TN, July 28–October 13, 2019, Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC, January 1–August 9, 2020, Wofford College, Spartanburg, SC, September 7–December 18, 2020, Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA, February 6–July 18, 2021
Scenic Impressions: Southern Interpretations from the Johnson Collection, Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, TN, November 1, 2015–January 3, 2016, Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA, January 16–April 10, 2016, Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN, January 16–April 10, 2016, McKissick Museum, Columbia, SC, May 19–August 5, 2017, Telfair Museums, Savannah, GA, October 13, 2017–March 25, 2018, Wofford College, Spartanburg, SC, August 28–December 13, 2018
Beauty and Pattern in Common Things, TJC Gallery, Spartanburg, SC, March 19–May 28, 2015
The Elemental South: Visions of the Southern Landscape, TJC Gallery, Spartanburg, SC, December 4, 2014–February 26, 2015
Helen M. Turner: The Woman’s Point of View, Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, TN, June 27, 2010–May 8, 2011