Helena de kay Gilder was an active member of a close knit group of women artists who attempted a formal art education at Cooper Union and then at the National Academy of Design in the 1870s and 1880s. She was bisexual in a time when there was little acceptance, and had two serious relationships with women before allowing men to court her. She and another woman were the first in New York City to have their own studio as independent women artusts. Her life was a constant struggle against others bent on their appropriation of her visual and emotional presence. She was the subject of several paintings by Winslow Homer and Cecila Beaux, and a stainglass window by John La Farge. She was fictionalized in a number of novels by Henry James and others. Her career was stymied by the sexist and misogynist society that surrounded her.
