Andrew Wyeth's Helga Pictures

Debuting in 1987 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., this exceptional exhibition with more than 70 works from the Helga series included finished paintings in tempera and dry brush as well as drawings and works in watercolor. From 1971 until 1985, Wyeth undertook a long, intensive study of one model, Helga Testorf. Testorf was one of the artist s neighbors in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and Wyeth s private project for some 14 years. He created approximately 240 works the volume of work is characteristic in many ways of his approach toward a subject of special interest repeated, investigatory and diverse. The way it was created was perhaps less typical. The series was done in nearly complete privacy, without revealing to anyone the existence of the series, the identity of the model or the extent of the project. Helga Testorf provided a means for Wyeth to explore the complexity of the human figure. She was presented in almost every human aspect clothed, nude, indoors, outdoors, in recognizable settings and against neutral backgrounds. With the Helga series, Wyeth tested the limits of his imagination using a single model. Testorf, who had never been an artist s model before, was equal to his challenge, enduring and even extending long sessions posing for the artist. In 1985, Andrew Wyeth began admitting others into the world he had created through the Helga series. Although the following year saw great media interest, the Helga series has been in the public eye just a few times.