Helen Thornycroft

Who was Helen Thornycroft?

Helen Thornycroft was an English painter of the Victorian era.

She was a member of the well-known Thornycroft family of sculptors, which included her maternal grandfather John Francis, her father Thomas Thornycroft, her mother Mary Thornycroft, and her younger brother Hamo Thornycroft. Hamo and Helen's sisters Alyce and Theresa were both artists as well. Edmund Gosse was a relative by marriage.

Helen's brother John Isaac Thornycroft began his shipbuilding career by constructing a steam launch at home in his late teens. Helen, nicknamed "Nello," was reportedly his "only helper" in this endeavor. While helping John Isaac, she was "nearly scalped" when her hair tangled in his machinery; she wore her hair short from then on, in defiance of the reigning custom.

Helen, Hamo, Alyce, and Theresa were all trained in the Royal Academy schools starting in the 1860s, when the institution was only beginning to take female students. The date and circumstances of Helen's entry are disputed; by one account, she applied in 1862, but was rejected by Sir Edwin Landseer because of her youth.