Helene Funke was born in 1869 in Chemnitz, nowadays Czech Republic. From 1899 she studied art at the School of Arts with Friedrich Fehr and at the Womans School of Arts with Angelo Jank in Munich. From 1905 to 1913 she lived in Paris and South of France. In France she studied impressionism and fauvism. She exhibited in France together with Matisse, Braque and Vlaminck and participated from 1905 - 1913 in various "Salons d´Art". An important part of her paintings form her French period has vanished.
From 1913/14 until 1957 she lived again in Vienna. There she succeeded to establish herself in the national art scene, despite severe repressions from her male fellow colleagues. In 1920 one of her major paintings, "Music" was bought by the Austrian state, until present this work is missing. In 1928 she received the Austrian State Price for her work "Tobias and the Angel" (now in possession of Art Museum Chemnitz).
Until 1934 her works were regularily exhibited at Hagenbund and other artists associations. Since 1904 works by Funke were also presented at shows in Munich, Berlin, Dresden and Chemnitz.
When the Nazis dissolved the progressive artists associations like Hagenbund in 1938, also Funke´s work was forgotten for many decades. Only two exhibitions at Galerie Welz in Salzbourg as well as in Künstlerhaus Vienna honoured Funke and after the end of WWII Funke was given professorship by the state.
Only in the last 20 years Funke´s works were rediscovered by the art market. In 2007 the Lentos museum in Linz organised a big museum retrospective of her works and in 2011 a catalogue raisonné will be edited as well a museum exhibition is in preparation at Österreichische Galerie Belvedere in Vienna.
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