PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT NORTH CAROLINA COLLECTION
Lot 19
Andrew Wyeth(1917-2009)Loden Coat Study 29 x 21 3/8in
18 May 2016, 14:00 EDT
New YorkUS$200,000 - US$300,000
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Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009)
Loden Coat Study
signed 'Andrew Wyeth' (lower right)
watercolor and pencil on paper
29 x 21 3/8in
Executed in 1975.
signed 'Andrew Wyeth' (lower right)
watercolor and pencil on paper
29 x 21 3/8in
Executed in 1975.
Footnotes
Provenance
The artist.
Leonard B. Andrews, Malvern, Pennsylvania, 1986.
AM Art, Inc., Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, 1989.
Pacific Sun Trading Company, Wellesley, Massachusetts, 2005.
Private collection, North Carolina.
Gift to the present owner, 2006.
Exhibited
Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, and elsewhere, Andrew Wyeth: The Helga Pictures, May 24, 1987-December 16, 1990, p. 143, no. 170, illustrated.
Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, Brandywine River Museum, and elsewhere, The Helga Pictures: Then and Now, September 24, 1992-October 17, 1993.
West Palm Beach, Florida, Norton Museum of Art, and elsewhere, Andrew Wyeth: The Helga Pictures, January 13, 1996-June 29, 1997.
Omaha, Nebraska, Joslyn Art Museum, and elsewhere, Andrew Wyeth's Helga Pictures: An Intimate Study, May 4, 2002-January 5, 2003.
Lafayette, Louisiana, University of Louisiana, Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum, and elsewhere, Andrew Wyeth: The Helga Pictures, April 21, 2004-January 9, 2005, p. 13, 73, no. 52, illustrated (also in Chinese translated publication, Washington, D.C., 2004).
This watercolor will be included in Betsy James Wyeth's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work.
Over a fifteen-year period, beginning in 1971, Andrew Wyeth painted the model Helga Testorf almost exclusively and in complete seclusion. He worked tirelessly on the series, sitting for long sessions with the model, recording every feature and curve of her form. The Helga Pictures became a series so deeply important to Wyeth, he preserved the entire body of work in his studio, never seen by his peers or family for nearly two decades. Wyeth did not commit his signature to the numerous paper sheets and tempera panels depicting Helga until 1985 when the series was resolved and he eventually revealed the works to the public. Once exhibited, The Helga Pictures became a sensation, one such painting gracing the cover of Time Magazine, in August of 1986. The portfolio was received with high regard and fascination, securing the artist's position as one of the most important artists of the 20th century.
Among the many representations of Helga, some of the most widely recognized are those of the model wearing her loden coat. The present work, Loden Coat Study, pictures Helga from behind, walking up the hill to the neighboring Kuerner family home. Helga and Wyeth took long walks in the woods and farm surrounding the Wyeths' home in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, stopping to sit for staged portraits or continuing on foot over the soft earth, him following on her heels, recording it all by hand.
The Austrian garment, a deep green colored coat of heavy wool, was a staple among the model's winter wardrobe and is featured in many of the Helga portraits. The present work is a study for the painting Loden Coat, 1975, Private collection. Reduced in composition, Loden Coat Study illustrates Helga in the center of the page. Wyeth sketches in pencil, loosely outlining the clothed figure. With vibrant pigment the loden coat is livened in an earthly green watercolor, which records the strokes of his brush in sweeping streaks and more textured areas of application. The finishing touch of brown shapes her satchel bag and forms her leather boots and parted hair.
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