Three Hound Dogs

Helen Bruton

This Modernist glass and mixed media mosaic was done by California artist Helen Bruton around 1939 depicting 3 "hound dogs" according to the title on the verso. In 1933, Helen began working in mosaic; she and her sister Margaret collaborated on a mosaic project for the exterior panels for the Fleishacker Zoo Mother House in San Francisco. This project was under the auspices of the Federal Art Project.

In 1936. again for the WPA, created a 10 x 20 foot mosaic, "Sculpture and Dance" for the University of California, Berkeley, located on the east exterior of the old University Art Building.

Helen Bell Bruton (1898-1985), printmaker and mosaic muralist, was born in Alameda, California on February 7, 1898. Helen had two older sisters, Margaret and Esther. Both sisters were artists and they probably influenced Helen to follow their lead. Helen first studied art at the University of California at Berkeley. World War I interrupted studies and Helen and her sisters joined in the war effort by working at the Letterman Hospital in San Francisco.

After the war, Helen moved to New York to attend the Art Students' League where she studied with sculptors Stirling Calder and Leo Lentelli. In 1925, Helen joined her sisters in Paris to study at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. They all returned to work and live in California.