Artist

Helen Ridgely was a skilled artist who enjoyed creating works with watercolors, pencil, or pen and ink on paper. She received early training as an adolescent and became strikingly proficient by her mid-teens. She continued to draw and paint throughout most of her adult life.

Helen’s artistic talent was equaled by her interest in visiting art galleries and exhibitions. After a trip to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1906, she listed the works in the exhibition with descriptions of each painting and discussed at length the characteristics that attracted her attention to it. She visited the exhibition more than once and at different times of day, in order to ascertain what, if any, changes the variation in light impacted each work. Helen wrote in her dairy that attending the exhibition was one of the great events of her life.

 

Sketchpad, c.1865 (HAMP 17938) (left and middle)
Sketchpad, c.1867 (HAMP 17941) (right)

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While at the Misses Hall’s girls’ school in Baltimore, Helen was instructed in the basics of drawing, considered a standard skill for well-educated young ladies at that time. She showed raw talent at an early age and practiced by copying illustrations out of books and publications.

 

Pencil on paper of landscape, 1870 (HAMP 4480)

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Helen’s natural talent matured and flourished during her time in school in Switzerland. This landscape, showing her command of accurate representation, shading, and perspective, was drawn when she was just 16 years old.

 

Watercolor on paper of child, 1872 (HAMP 4411) (left)
Watercolor on paper of woman, c.1872-1873 (HAMP 4414) (right)

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These two colorful works were completed shortly after Helen Stewarts’s return from Europe. The little girl with the stove was perhaps based on memories or sketches of her time in Switzerland. The powerful image of the Black woman on a cabin porch may depict a servant at Cliffholme, the Stewart family’s country home, or Hampton, where Helen first visited in the spring of 1873. If at Cliffholme, the woman portrayed may be Lucy Freeman (b. 1832), who is listed as working for Helen’s parents in the 1870 census records.

 

Pencil on paper of horses, April 3, 1873 (HAMP 4414) (left)
Pencil on paper or horses, 1870-1875 (HAMP 4416) (right)

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Helen was skilled at depicting animals, both domestic and wild. The dated drawing of horses’ heads may show two of the powerful carriage horses at Hampton, where Helen had visited the day before. The drawing of the deer again shows her sensitivity to the natural world and its creatures.

 

Watercolor on paper, 1883 (HAMP 4429)

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In the early 1880s, Helen sought to enhance her skills with watercolor, taking classes at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. At this time, many of her works are executed in a sepia-toned washes. The paintings also reflect her memories of time in Europe.

 

Watercolor on paper of mill, c.1885 (HAMP 4450) (left)
Watercolor on paper of landscape, c.1885 (HAMP 4443) (right)

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A number of scenes showing informal views of the countryside around Hampton survived from Helen’s albums of artwork. The landscape on the left may show the back side of a historic mill, possibly near the Hampton estate.