About Helen Hayse

Helen Hayse was born Helen Young in southern Indiana. Both her parents and grandparents were horse breeders. She was initiated early into the excitement of the show-ring when as a child she became acquainted with the leading showmen and women of the day. She sold her first horse painting at the young age ten.

She then married Walton Hayse, a third-generation breeder, and exhibitor of the American Saddle Horse. Helen Hayse has focused on that breed for most of her illustrious career.

Much like her teacher, the noted George Ford Morris, she is known for her ability to achieve an individual likeness and/or quality that makes each horse unique and unto themselves.

Since the 1930s, Mrs. Hayse has painted the leading champion show horses for America’s most prominent breeders and exhibitors. Most of her work is in the private collections of the families that commissioned them. She has also published a number of lithographs of the classic champions.

Like Mr. George Ford Morris and his distinguished predecessors George Stubbs, John Herring of England, and the great Rosa Bonheur of France, Mrs. Hayse is not only an artist but a lifetime horsewoman with many years of study of bloodlines behind her. She has also been involved in the breeding, care, and training of horses. To produce a portrait acceptable to horsemen a specialist like Mrs. Hayse must possess not only skill and formal training but a thorough knowledge of horses drawn from personal experience and dedication.

Mrs. Hayse’s images can be appreciated by both horse lovers and a much wider public. Both the subjects of the paintings and the paintings themselves are hallmarks of excellence. Mrs. Hayse’s finely honed artistic skills along with her craftsmanship are an integral part of her art. Her subjects and her paintings are representative of gracious times past.