Hélène N.

Hélène N. was born in 1947 in Skikda (formerly Philippeville), Algeria, to Sicilian and French parents. She moved to France at the age of fifteen, when her family settled in Palaiseau, a suburb southwest of Paris. Her early years were shaped by personal hardship, but also by a resilient life force and a passionate drive toward the arts. Despite limited means, she roamed museums and cinemas, and immersed herself in the world of music. In her late sixties, she began drawing women's faces—eventually creating an extraordinary number of portraits.What remains of this body of work—produced over the course of a decade—is a collection of around one hundred pieces, ranging from 24 × 32 cm sheets to small, irregularly cut fragments. Many were lost, discarded, or sold at markets and in cafés.