Painter and printmaker Helene Mass was born in the Poznan province of Germany in 1871. She trained in painting at the Academy of Arts in Berlin; when and where she began training in woodcut is not known. She was associated with late 19th century Impressionism and the Berlin Secession, and was a member of the Association of Berlin Artists. She was known especially for her color woodcuts of garden scenes, using rich, saturated colors. Her main period of activity was from the 1910s through the 1920s and into the early 1930s; from there, it is unknown what happened to the artist. Some sources place her death around 1953 to 1955. As with many women printmakers of the time, much of her work went uncatalogued despite her clear talent.