![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() For art critic James Gardner, Testorf "has the curious distinction of being the last person to be made famous by a painting". That's what happened when I saw Helga." He described his attraction to "all her German qualities, her strong, determined stride, that Loden coat, the braided blond hair".Īrt historian John Wilmerding wrote, "Such close attention by a painter to one model over so long a period of time is a remarkable, if not singular, circumstance in the history of American art". The sessions were a secret even to their spouses.[ The paintings were stored at the home of his student, neighbor and good friend, Frolic Weymouth.Įxplaining the Helga series, Wyeth said, "The difference between me and a lot of painters is that I have to have a personal contact with my models. Wyeth asked Testorf to model for him in 1971, and from then until 1985 he made 45 paintings and 200 drawings of her, many of which depicted her nude. ![]() To John Updike, her body "is what Winslow Homer's maidens would have looked like beneath their calico." Helga "Testy" Testorf was a neighbor of Wyeth's in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and over the course of fifteen years posed for Wyeth indoors and out of doors, nude and clothed, in attitudes that reminded writers of figures painted by Botticelli and Édouard Manet. Andrew Wyeth The Helga Pictures, First Edition Book, 1987 ![]()
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