Andrew Wyeth 1917-2009

Leonard E.B. Andrews, Malvern, Pennsylvania, 1986 (acquired from the artist)
Private Collection, Japan, 1989 (acquired from the above)
Acquired by the present owner, 2006

Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art; Boston, Massachusetts, Museum of Fine Arts; Houston, Texas, The Museum of Fine Arts; Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; San Francisco, California, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco; Detroit, Michigan, Detroit Institute of Arts, Andrew Wyeth: The Helga Pictures, May 1987-January 1989, no. 60, pp. 13, 28, 72, illustrated as a detail; illustrated p. 73 (also traveled to eight venues in Japan)
Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, Brandywine River Museum; Portland, Maine, Portland Museum of Art, The Helga Pictures: Then and Now, September 1992-October 1993
West Palm Beach, Florida, Norton Museum of Art; San Diego, California, San Diego Museum of Art; Portland, Oregon, Portland Art Museum; New Orleans, Louisiana, New Orleans Museum of Art, Andrew Wyeth-The Helga Pictures, January 1996-January 1997
Louisville, Kentucky, J.B. Speed Art Museum, Wyeth–Three Generations, June-August 1998
Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, Brandywine River Museum, Andrew Wyeth Gallery-Fall 1998, November 1998-May 1999
Omaha, Nebraska, Joslyn Art Museum; Nashville, Tennessee, Cheekwood Art Museum, Andrew Wyeth's Helga Pictures: An Intimate Study, May 2002-January 2003
Lafayette, Louisiana, Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette; Canton, Ohio, Canton Museum of Art; Charlotte, North Carolina, Mint Museum of Art, Andrew Wyeth's Helga Pictures, April 2004-January 2005, no. 23, illustrated p. 40 (circulated by International Arts & Artists)
Naples, Florida, Naples Museum of Art, Andrew Wyeth & Family: N.C., Andrew & Jamie, January-May 2006, illustrated n.p.
New York, Adelson Galleries, Andrew Wyeth: Helga on Paper, November-December 2006, no. 27, pp. 50-51, illustrated p. 123
Vero Beach, Florida, Vero Beach Museum of Art, Face Forward: American Portraits from Sargent to the Present, January-May 2008
Kalamazoo, Michigan, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, The Wyeths: America's Artists, January-April 2011, illustrated

James G. Blaine, "Wyeth 'Helga' pictures exhibited," The Kennett Paper, May 21, 1987, p. 1, illustrated
"Andrew Wyeth's work with mystery model goes on display," Sunday Press, May 31, 1987, p. G2, illustrated
Thomas Gladysz, "Helga stirs debate on merit of Wyeth's work," The Progress, August 12, 1988, illustrated
Kenneth Baker, "The Helga Hoopla," San Francisco Chronicle, August 14, 1988, p. 1, illustrated
Glen Helfand, "Helga Schmelga," San Francisco Sentinel," August 19, 1988, illustrated
James H. Duff, "An American Vision: Three Generations of Wyeth Art," USA Today, January 1, 1988, pp. 36-47, illustrated
John Updike, Just Looking: Essays on Art, New York, 1989, illustrated
"Images of the 80s–The Helga Affair," U.S. Art, December 1989, p. 21, illustrated
Contemporary Great Masters-Andrew Wyeth, Tokyo, 1993, illustrated
Lennie Bennett, "The Wyeth's," St. Petersburg Times, April 23, 2006
James Gardner, "A Villain in Pigtails," New York Sun, November 2, 2006
Pam Harbaugh, "Vero museum puts on brave face," Florida Today, February 18, 2008
Brian Bingaman, "Remembering Andrew Wyeth," The Reporter, January 29, 2009, p. D8-9, illustrated
David Cateforis, ed., Rethinking Andrew Wyeth, Berkeley, California, 2014

Beginning in 1971, Andrew Wyeth produced over 240 images in tempera, drybrush, watercolor and pencil depicting a single woman–Helga Testorf. This collection of works, known as “The Helga Pictures,” remained hidden from the world–even from Wyeth’s wife, Betsy–until it was purchased in almost its entirety by the Philadelphia publisher Leonard E.B. Andrews in 1986. Andrews’s intention was to preserve the collection for the public’s enjoyment, and shortly after his purchase, the works embarked on a two year traveling exhibition curated by John Wilmerding of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Wyeth was first introduced to Helga by their mutual neighbor Karl Kuerner, whose family and farm in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania had served as subjects of the artist’s work for years. The artist was immediately captivated by her, and she became his primary muse for the next 15 years. Wyeth “depicted [Helga] nude and clothed, indoors and out, asleep and awake, in different seasons and times of day, documenting her physical and emotional evolution” (John Wilmerding, Andrew Wyeth: The Helga Pictures, New York, 1987, p. 11).

Wyeth executed The Prussian in 1974, just three years after his initial meeting with Helga. It is one of several works from the series in drybrush, a technique that allowed Wyeth to achieve a greater level of detail and a richer, more sculptural surface than is typically seen in his watercolors. “I work in drybrush when my emotion gets deep enough into a subject,” the artist explained. “I paint with a smaller brush, dip it into the watercolor color, play out the brush and bristles, squeeze out a good deal of the moisture and color with my fingers so that there is only a very small amount of paint left…A good drybrush is done over a very wet series of washes....Drybrush is layer upon layer. It’s a definite weaving process–you weave the layers of drybrush over and within the broad washes of watercolor” (Ibid., pp. 12-13).

In The Prussian, Wyeth experiments with the motif of the solitary female figure. His exacting technique allows him to capture Helga’s physical likeness with veracity, and details such as her blond braids and sturdy coat allude to her family’s German heritage, one of the qualities that first attracted Wyeth to her. The composition transcends pure portraiture, however, as like the best of Wyeth’s work it radiates with an underlying feeling of the surreal. Despite the intimacy Wyeth shared with his model, he often rendered her with detachment, portraying her in seemingly private moments that convey the sense that she is unaware of the artist’s presence. In The Prussian Helga’s gaze avoids that of the viewer. As she stares off into the distance, her face is unreadable and her mood is kept internalized. Her figure is brightly lit but framed in ambiguous darkness, imbuing the work with a strongly cinematic feel. The enigmatic solitude that Wyeth captures in The Prussian brings to mind the work of Edward Hopper, who similarly employed dramatic effects of light and shadow to create narrative works of haunting isolation (Fig. 1).

Five years later in 1979, Wyeth executed a similar composition, entitled Braids (Private Collection), which depicts Helga in a nearly identical pose yet also portrays the graying hairs and wrinkled features that then adorned her appearance (Fig. 2). When considered together, these two works speak to themes of aging and the passage of time, ideas that are central to this innovative and highly original series.