Helen Farr Sloan - Biography

Biography

Helen Farr was born in New York City on February 24, 1911. She was the daughter of Dr. Charles Farr, a New York surgeon and Helen Woodhull Farr. She graduated high school from The Brearley School for Girls in 1929. She took anatomy classes at Cornell University Medical School and studied weaving, pottery, metalwork, wood carving and jewelry making at the Craft Students League. At sixteen Helen Farr enrolled in the Art Students League of New York where she met and studied with John Sloan (1871–1951) who became her lifelong friend, mentor and in 1944, her husband.

While her marriage to Sloan lasted only seven years (1944–1951), Helen Farr Sloan’s devotion to art was a lifelong commitment. After Sloan’s death she returned to her teaching career and continued to paint. She also spent her remaining years focused on supporting research about her husband and American art history and working on distributing his estate. The contents of his studio and his wide-ranging library became a treasure trove for philanthropic giving. The recipients of her largesse include the University of Delaware, Sewell C. Biggs Museum in Dover, Delaware, Smithsonian Institution, the National Gallery of Art, Boston Film and Video Foundation, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Katonah Museum of Art in New York and the New-York Historical Society. Helen Farr Sloan’s own paintings are held in private and public collections, including the Delaware Art Museum and the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C..

Beginning in 1961, and continuing throughout her life, Helen Farr Sloan nurtured a special relationship with the Delaware Art Museum. Because of Helen Farr Sloan’s gifts and scholarship, the Delaware Art Museum received more than 5,000 works including the preeminent collection of the work of John Sloan with virtually every aspect of his career represented. This has made the Delaware Art Museum the leading repository for the study of John Sloan who was noted for his realistic images of turn-of-the-century New York City.

Helen Farr Sloan died December 13, 2005, at the age of 94 in Wilmington, Delaware.