Helen Hyde and Her "Children": Influences, Techniques and Business Savvy of an American Japoniste Printmaker

After the opening of Japan in the mid-1800s many foreigners flocked to the

nation. San Franciscan Helen Hyde (1868-1919) joined the throng in 1899. Unlike many

of her predecessors, however, she went as a single woman and was so taken with Japan

she made it her home over the span of fourteen years. While a number of cursory studies

have been written on Helen Hyde and her work, a wide range of questions have been left

unanswered. Issues regarding her specific training, her printmaking techniques and the

marketing of her art have been touched on, but never delved into. This dissertation will

explore those issues. Helen Hyde's success as a printmaker stemmed from her intense

artistic training, experimental techniques, artistic and social connections and diligence in

self-promotion and marketing as well as a Western audience hungry for "Old Japan," and

its imagined quaintness. Hyde's choice to live and work in Japan gave her access to

models and firsthand subject matter which helped her audience feel like they were getting

a slice of Japan, translated for them by a Western artist. This dissertation provides an in

depth bibliography including hundreds of primary newspaper articles about Hyde who

was lauded for her unique style. It also expands and corrects the listing of her printed

works and examines the working style of an American working in a Japanese system with

Japanese subjects for a primarily American audience. It also provides a listing of known

exhibitions of Hyde's works and a listing of stamps and markings she used on her prints.