Helen Louise Beccard

Helen Beccard was born on November 12, 1903, in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of John F. Beccard and Lena M. Beccard (née Obermark). She attended the St. Louis School of Fine Arts at Washington University and graduated in 1925.

Beccard traveled frequently throughout her career and painted subjects from her trips to Europe and Mexico, though she later became known for her depictions of St. Louis subjects. In addition to painting, Beccard took an interest in block printing and lithography. Beccard taught art at the Mary Institute in St. Louis and the Ste. Genevieve Art Colony.

Beccard was highly engaged in the arts community. She was a member of the anti-fascist arts organization, American Artists' Congress, and she was active in the St. Louis Society of Independent Artists, serving on the organization's Executive Committee in 1932. She was also a member of the St. Louis Artists' Guild, exhibiting with the organization throughout the 1920s and 1930s and winning multiple awards.

Beccard relocated from St. Louis to New York in the late 1930s, and married to Walter W. Niles in 1942. Today her works can be found in collections at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C., The Art Institute of Chicago, and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. She died on May 14, 1994, in San Francisco, California.