Unrequited Love
Winslow Homer’s (1836-1910) unrequited love, Helena De Kay, is the subject of this portrait from 1871. Her rejection of Homer, who asked for her hand, left him crushed. He remained a bachelor. She was a talented painter and a founder of the Art Students League and Society of American Artists. She married the American poet and editor Richard Gilder. Gilder and de Kay were the models for the characters Thomas and Augusta Hudson in Wallace Stegner's Pulitzer-prize winning novel, Angle of Repose. Their son, Rodman de Kay Gilder (1877–1953), became an author and married Louise Comfort Tiffany, a daughter of Louis Comfort Tiffany.
Reader Comments