Andrew Wyeth: The Helga Pictures by Wyeth, Andrew; Wilmerding, John - 1987

New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc, 1987. Large Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 9x1x11. Jacket lightly rubbed. 1987 Large Hardcover. 208 pages. 294 illustrations, including 96 full-color plates. "For 15 years, America's most popular living artist worked in secret with neighbor Helga Testorf as model. The result -- some 240 pencil sketches, watercolors, dry-brush, and temperas, concerned with Helga in all aspects, nude and clothed -- are here shown in 100 high-quality color plates and 160 black and white illustrations. Works in progress reveal the artist's methods; finished works, an obsession with his model as awesome as his technique. Wilmerding, deputy director of the National Gallery, contributes an informative text, further clarified by the artist's own observations." -- Library Journal "In 1986, extensive coverage was given to the revelation of a series of 247 studies of Wyeth's neighbour, the Prussian-born Helga Testorf, painted over the period 1971–85 without the knowledge of either Wyeth's wife or John Testorf, Helga's husband. Helga is a musician, baker, caregiver, and friend of the Wyeths; she met Wyeth when she was attending to Karl Kuerner. She had never modeled before, but quickly became comfortable with the long periods of posing, during which she was observed and painted in intimate detail. The Helga pictures are not an obvious psychological study of the subject, but more an extensive study of her physical landscape set within Wyeth's customary landscapes. She is nearly always unsmiling and passive; yet, within those deliberate limitations, Wyeth manages to convey subtle qualities of character and mood, as he does in many of his best portraits. This extensive study of one subject studied in differing contexts and emotional states is unique in American art. In 1986, millionaire Leonard E.B. Andrews purchased almost the entire collection, preserving it intact. A very few Helga paintings had already been given away to friends, including the famous Lovers, which had been given as a gift to Wyeth's wife. The works were exhibited at the National Gallery of Art in 1987 and in a coast-to-coast tour. The Helga works are now owned by a private Japanese industrialist, who has agreed to allow additional exhibitions. In March 2002, Wyeth painted Gone, his last Helga picture, and it joined the collection on recent tours between 2002–06." -- Wikipedia