‘Jean-Paul Sartre hid at her house!’ The forgotten brilliance of Hélène de Beauvoir, sister of Simone
She was a painter ‘ahead of her time’, counting Picasso as a fan. But Hélène de Beauvoir was always overshadowed by her famous sister. Now, with a show opening in Britain, the artist is finally receiving her due
S imone de Beauvoir, the French feminist icon, novelist and philosopher who bestrode the 20th century, had a younger sister called Hélène. She was not famous like Simone but she was every bit as radical and prolific, as both a feminist and a painter. It seems ridiculous that history would have sidelined this woman whose work Picasso complimented at her first Paris show in 1936, calling it “original”. She was also president of a women’s refuge, and signed 1971’s influential Manifesto of the 343 Women, in which the signatories all admitted to having had an illegal abortion. Hélène even declared herself a feminist before Simone.
Now, with a show of her paintings opening at the Amar Gallery in London, the record is being set straight, as Hélène finally receives the recognition many feel she is due. “Our whole mission,” says gallerist Amar Singh, “is to search for overlooked artists.” Singh regales me with tales of cross-continental wild goose chases on the trail of collectors who might just sell. Once he hits upon an artist, he says, he looks into why they may have been sidelined. “It is always,” says the gallerist, “down to gender, race or sexuality.”
