Vanessa Helder
1904–1968
Nationality: American
Affiliations: 20th Century, Northwest Artist, Spokane Art Center Instructor, and WPA Artist
Zama Vanessa Helder was born in Lynden, Washington and lived in Seattle and Spokane until relocating permanently to Los Angeles in 1943. She studied at the University of Washington and later at the Art Students League in New York with Frank Vincent DuMond, George Picken, and Robert Brackman.
Helder first gained national attention in 1936 when her work was accepted in the American Watercolor Society’s exhibition in New York. Maynard Walker discovered her work and began representing her at his prestigious New York gallery. An important accomplishment for Helder was inclusion in the “Realists and Magic Realists” exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1943, a show that included artist Edward Hopper. She also exhibited at the Whitney Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Denver Art Museum, and the Seattle Art Museum where she had a one-person exhibition in 1939.
Vanessa Helder was a member of Women Painters of Washington, the National Association of Women Artists, and the American and California Watercolor Societies. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Seattle Art Museum, the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, the Newark Museum, the High Museum of Art, The Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the St. Louis Art Museum, The Academy Of Arts And Letters, New York, the Museum of Art, Washington State University, Pullman, and the I.B.M. Corporation. The Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture owns her complete series of the Grand Coulee Dam construction.
Sources: Manuscript collections, Joel E. Ferris Research Library and Archives, Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture; Collection records, Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, Spokane; David Martin, An Enduring Legacy: Women Painters of Washington, 1930-2005, Whatcom Museum of History & Art, Bellingham, Washington, 2005.
B Street - Residence District
Date: 1939-1941
Image Dimensions: 17 7/8 x 22 1/8 inches (image)
Medium: Watercolor
Inscription: “Vanessa Helder,” lower left corner, front
Subjects: worker housing and Grant County-Grand Coulee Dam-Construction
Provenance: Purchased from the artist in 1954.
Collection Number: 2585.22
Cement Silos
Date: 1939-1941
Image Dimensions: 14 3/4 x 22 1/5 inches (image)
Medium: Watercolor
Inscription: “Vanessa Helder,” lower right corner, front
Curator Notes: Vanessa Helder’s twenty-two paintings documenting the construction of Grand Coulee Dam, completed between 1939 and 1941, capture both the grand scale and the subtle nuance of one of the largest public works projects in the history of America. In skillfully orchestrated compositions Helder juxtaposes the wild eastern Washington landscape with human-made structures offering views of dam construction, people at work, and worker housing and community buildings. Two rich paintings reveal the lost beauty of the Kettle Falls, a traditional fishing site and gathering place for Plateau Indian people until it was inundated by the Lake Roosevelt reservoir created by the Grand Coulee Dam. These paintings possess an unmistakable vitality that studio partner and friend of Vanessa Helder, Robert O. Engard believes came from studying the strong contrasts of light, shadow, and color present in the semi-arid landscape of eastern Washington.
Subjects: Grant County-Grand Coulee Dam-Construction and Great Northern Railway
Provenance: Purchased from the artist in 1954.
Collection Number: 2585.1
Cliff Drive
Date: 1939-1941
Image Dimensions: 15 1/8 x 20 1/2 inches (image)
Medium: Watercolor
Inscription: “Vanessa Helder,” lower right corner, front
Subject: Grant County-Grand Coulee Dam-Construction
Provenance: Purchased from the artist in 1954.
Collection Number: 2585.12
Construction Crew
Date: 1939-1941
Image Dimensions: 15 x 19 3/8 inches (image)
Medium: Watercolor
Inscription: “Vanessa Helder,” lower right corner, front
Subject: Grant County-Grand Coulee Dam-Construction
Provenance: Purchased from the artist in 1954.
Collection Number: 2585.2
Conveyor Belt
Date: 1939-1941
Image Dimensions: 18 1/4 x 22 1/2 inches (image)
Medium: Watercolor
Inscription: “Vanessa Helder,” lower right corner, front
Subject: Grant County-Grand Coulee Dam-Construction
Provenance: Purchase from the artist in 1954.
Collection Number: 2585.8
Coulee Dam, Looking West
Date: 1939-1941
Image Dimensions: 18 x 21 7/8 inches (image)
Medium: Watercolor
Inscription: “Vanessa Helder,” lower right corner, front; copyright mark associated with signature, verso; “Coulee Dam Looking West,” upper right corner, verso; other inscriptions on verso: “413,” “A300-4,” “Title ‘Coulee Dam’ (Looking West),” copyright mark, “42/845 Macbeth”
Subject: Grant County-Grand Coulee Dam-Construction
Provenance: Purchased from the artist in 1954.
Collection Number: 2585.3
East Grout Shed
Date: 1939-1941
Image Dimensions: 15 1/2 x 21 inches (image)
Medium: Watercolor
Inscription: “Vanessa Helder,” lower left corner, front
Subject: Grant County-Grand Coulee Dam-Construction
Provenance: Purchased from the artist in 1954.
Collection Number: 2585.7
Grand Coulee
Date: 1939-1941
Image Dimensions: 18 1/4 x 22 1/4 inches (image)
Medium: Watercolor
Inscription: “Vanessa Helder,” lower right corner, front
Subjects: Grand Coulee, WA, and Grant County-Grand Coulee Dam-Construction
Provenance: Purchased from the artist in 1954.
Collection Number: 2585.21
Grand Coulee Heights
Date: 1939-1941
Image Dimensions: 15 x 19 1/2 inches (image)
Medium: Watercolor
Inscription: "Vanessa Helder," lower right corner, front
Subjects: worker housing and Grant County-Grand Coulee Dam-Construction
Provenance: Purchased from the artist in 1954.
Collection Number: 2585.20
Hilltop House
Date: 1939-1941
Image Dimensions: 18 1/4 x 22 1/2 inches (image)
Medium: Watercolor
Inscription: “Vanessa Helder,” lower left corner, front
Subjects: Grant County-Grand Coulee Dam-Construction and worker housing
Provenance: Purchased from the artist in 1954.
Collection Number: 2585.5
Hooverville Coulee Dam
Date: 1939-1941
Image Dimensions: 14 1/2 x 19 1/4 inches (image)
Medium: Watercolor
Inscription: “Vanessa Helder,” lower right corner, front
Subjects: Grant County-Grand Coulee Dam-Construction and Hooverville
Provenance: Purchased from the artist 1954.
Collection Number: 2585.10
Jackhammer Crew
Date: 1939-1941
Image Dimensions: 15 1/2 x 20 1/5 inches (image)
Medium: Watercolor
Inscription: “Vanessa Helder,” lower right corner, front
Subjects: Construction Worker and Grant County-Grand Coulee Dam-Construction
Provenance: Purchased from the artist in 1954.
Collection Number: 2585.14
Kettle Falls
Date: 1939-1941
Image Dimensions: 17 5/8 x 22 1/8 inches (image)
Medium: Watercolor
Inscription: “Vanessa Helder,” lower right corner, front
Subjects: Kettle Falls and WA
Provenance: Purchased from the artist in 1954.
Collection Number: 2585.6
Methodist Church in Coulee Heights
Date: 1939-1941
Image Dimensions: 15 x 20 1/2 inches (image)
Medium: Watercolor
Inscription: "Vanessa Helder," lower right corner, front
Subjects: church, Grant County-Grand Coulee Dam-Construction, Methodist, Coulee Heights, and WA
Provenance: Purchased from the artist in 1954.
Collection Number: 2585.18
Neighbors
Date: 1939-1941
Image Dimensions: 18 x 22 3/8 inches (image)
Medium: Watercolor
Inscription: “Vanessa Helder,” lower left corner, front
Subjects: worker housing and Grant County-Grand Coulee Dam-Construction
Provenance: Purchased from the artist in 1954.
Collection Number: 2585.17
Pink Cyclamen
Date: 1935-1939
Image Dimensions: 9 1/4 x 12 1/4 inches (image)
Medium: Watercolor
Inscription: “Z Vanessa Helder,” lower left corner, front
Curator Notes: This still life of pink cyclamen shares stylistic attributes with the geranium study in the museum’s collection also by Vanessa Helder numbered 3016.5 pre-dating it to her arrival in Eastern Washington. Painting the stark contrasts of shadow, light, and color found in the eastern Washington landscape introduced a new vitality to her style according to fellow WPA artist and former studio partner Robert O. Engard.
Subject: Still Life
Provenance: Gift of Mr. John A. and Mrs. Connie Huneke, 1990
Collection Number: 3537.1
Pool Below Kettle Falls
Date: 1939-1941
Image Dimensions: 19 x 22 3/4 inches (image)
Medium: Watercolor
Inscription: “Vanessa Helder,” lower right corner, front
Subjects: Kettle Falls and WA
Provenance: Purchased by the artist in 1954.
Collection Number: 2585.13
Rainy Afternoon
Date: 1939-1941
Image Dimensions: 15 1/2 x 22 inches (image)
Medium: Watercolor
Inscription: “Vanessa Helder,” lower right corner, front
Subjects: worker housing and Grant County-Grand Coulee Dam-Construction
Provenance: Purchased from the artist in 1954.
Collection Number: 2585.11
Rocks and Concrete
Date: 1939-1941
Image Dimensions: 21 1/4 x 16 1/4 inches (image)
Medium: Watercolor
Inscription: Front: “Vanessa Helder,” lower right corner; one half-inch long concave underline centered under Helder. Above the signature is a large “Z” about 1 in. tall Verso: “Rocks and Concrete, West end of Dam, Vanessa Helder,” top; “X 300 - 17,” one inch from top edge, to right of center; a stamp at vertical center, left of horizontal center that is rectangular with two rectangular boxes and a circle inside. In each of the two interior boxes is written, “A1544”; “11/40 - C9,” lower left quadrant; Manufacturer's watermark upper right corner, “ALL PURE LINEN, GRUMBACHER NY”
Subject: Grant County-Grand Coulee Dam-Construction
Provenance: Purchased from the artist in 1954.
Collection Number: 2585.16
Sand and Gravel Works
Date: 1939-1941
Image Dimensions: 18 x 22 inches (image)
Medium: Watercolor
Inscription: “Vanessa Helder,” lower right corner, front
Subject: Grant County-Grand Coulee Dam-Construction
Provenance: Purchased from the artist in 1954.
Collection Number: 2585.19
Stiff-Legged Crane
Date: 1939-1941
Image Dimensions: 14 3/4 x 20 5/8 inches (image)
Medium: Watercolor
Inscription: “Vanessa Helder,” lower right corner, front
Subject: Grant County-Grand Coulee Dam-Construction
Provenance: Purchased from the artist in 1954.
Collection Number: 2585.4
Sunday Morning in Grand Coulee
Date: 1939-1941
Image Dimensions: 18 1/8 x 22 1/4 inches (image)
Medium: Watercolor
Inscription: “Vanessa Helder,” lower left corner, front
Curator Notes: Strong vertical elements, often in the form of leafless trees, punctuate Vanessa Helder’s spare landscapes. In this image of worker housing at Grand Coulee Dam, a lone, wireless power pole anticipates the promise of hydro-electric power.
Subjects: worker housing and Grant County-Grand Coulee Dam-Construction
Provenance: Puchased from the artist in 1954.
Collection Number: 2585.9
Tanks and Track
Date: 1939-1941
Image Dimensions: 18 3/8 x 22 5/8 inches (image)
Medium: Watercolor
Inscription: “Vanessa Helder,” lower left corner, front
Subjects: Grant County-Grand Coulee Dam-Construction and Great Northern Railway
Provenance: Purchased from the artist in 1954.
Collection Number: 2585.15
Trees
Date: 1939-1941
Image Dimensions: 9 3/4 x 14 3/4 inches (image)
Medium: lithograph
Inscription: “Trees, 6/15,” lower left margin; “Z. Vanessa Helder,” lower right margin
Subject: garden
Provenance: Gift of Robert O. and Helen Engard, 1999
Collection Number: 3932.6
Untitled Still Life
Date: 1935-1939
Image Dimensions: 19 1/8 x 13 1/2 inches (mage)
Medium: Watercolor
Inscription: “Z Vanessa Helder,” lower right corner, front
Curator Notes: Bob Engard taught at the WPA Spokane Art Center with Vanessa Helder where they shared a studio and painted from potted plants in 1940 and 1941. Engard believes Helder brought this painting with her when she moved to Spokane because the painting exhibits less vitality than her paintings of the 1940s in which she employed strong contrasts of light, shadow, and color. Another clue is the signature that includes the distinctive “Z,” a format she adopted around 1935 and used for the rest of her career. Taken together these observations place the date of this painting between 1935 and 1939 before her Spokane tenure.
Subjects: still life and geranium
Provenance: Gift of Ms. Ruth Thompson, 1984
Collection Number: 3016.5