http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?lot_id=3FF4K
Sotheby Auction catalog entry
Andrew Wyeth (b. 1917), Loden Coat
signed Andrew Wyeth, l.l.
watercolor on paper | 30 by 22in. (76.2 by 55.9cm.) | Executed in 1975.
For fifteen years between 1971 and 1985, Andrew Wyeth secretly painted Helga Tesdorf at the Kuerner's
Chadds Ford farm and later in his sister Carolyn's studio. During that time, the artist sold only three of the
nearly two hundred fifty works from the series, one of which was Loden Coat. The present work shows Helga
from behind walking down the drive at Kuerner's farm. The loden coat, which reappears throughout the
series, was purchased on a trip to Germany in 1971; it reminded Helga of the coat she wore as a child in
Prussia. Wyeth had long been drawn to German subjects, in part because of his own Swiss-German ancestry,
and Helga came to represent the personification of Germany embodied by Wyeth's neighbors Karl and Anna
Kuerner in previous works. John Wilmerding writes, "Helga Testorf provided a parallel continuity and return
to human potency after the final illness of Karl Kuerner. ...Also a German immigrant, Helga had come to help
nurse the ailing Kuerner, and it was in that house with all its secluded and accumulated sentiments that,
'building in great layers,' Wyeth now saw new life and began his studies of her. The work would continue in
the house and in the fields near Kuerner's farmland. The Testorf family lived on another neighboring farm,
and so emotional continuities of landscape and personality were assured" (Andrew Wyeth: The Helga Series,
New York, 1987, p. 23).
Speaking about Loden Coat Wyeth himself said, "This is Helga. My son Jamie calls her 'the Panzer Division.'
When I saw her walking down that entrance road, I thought of all her German qualities that the Kuerners
symbolized-her strong determined stride, that Loden coat, the braided blonde hair. I always wanted to paint
the Kuerners' four daughters-in the nude-but I was too young then and didn't have the guts to ask. Helga
became the daughters. She was my most perfect model, and part of why she was so satisfying was that she
worked hard at it. With a model there has to be a relationship-not a sexual one, but a give-and-take sort of
thing. When a model is cold and shows little interest, it's a disaster. Or if a model thinks it's just a job, nothing
will come out of it. I've been lucky with my models. Walter Anderson was superb. Siri was great at first while
she was anxious and thrilled, but then she got blase. Helga posed nonstop. I'd get tired, but she'd say, 'Hey,
I'm not at all tired; keep going!' Where do the ideas for the poses come from? I like to find them by chance.
The model has to do something that makes things click. Choosing models is a chancy thing. You can be
around a model for months and nothing will happen, until suddenly you see something and it works. Loden
Coat was a quick, vital moment."
This watercolor will be included in Betsy James Wyeth's forthcoming catalogue raisonne of the artist's work.
Provenance:
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph E. Levine, Greenwich, Connecticut, 1978 (acquired directly from the artist)
Arthur and Holly Magill, Greenville, South Carolina, 1979-1990 Corporate Collection, Tokyo, Japan
Exhibited:
Greenville, South Carolina, Greenville County Museum of Art, Works by Andrew Wyeth from the Holly and Arthur Magill
Collection, September 1979, no. 15, p. 47, illustrated in color (on extended loan)
Gainesville, Georgia, Quinlan Art Center, Works by Andrew Wyeth at the Quinlan, February-March 1985
Tulsa, Oklahoma, Thomas Gilcrease Museum, Andrew Wyeth: Works on Paper from the Collection of Holly and Arthur Magill,
January-April 1989
Portland, Maine, Portland Museum of Art and Traveling, Andrew Wyeth in Maine: Selections from the Holly and Arthur Magill
Collection, July-September 1989
Nagoya, Japan, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art and Traveling, Andrew Wyeth: Autobiography, February-November 1995, no. 93, p.
104, illustrated in color
Literature:
"1979 Annual Report," Multimedia, Inc., January 1979
John Canaday, "Andrew Wyeth: Rising Above the Scorn," The Art Gallery, May 1979, pp. 102-115, 126
William Schemmel, "Wyeths of Greenville," Pace, July 1980, pp. 44-46
Catherine Fox, "Gainesville exhibit shows a different shade of Wyeth," The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Fenruary 1985
Sue Lile Inman, "Building in Layers-The Magill Collection of Andrew Wyeth's Art," Classics, November 1985, pp. 88-95
Thomas Hoving, "The Prussian-Andrew Wyeth's Secret Paintings (1972-85)," Connoisseur, September 1986, pp. 84-87
John Wilmerding, Andrew Wyeth: The Helga Pictures, New York, 1987, no. 172, pp. 11, 30, illustrated in color p. 145
Irene Prince, "Passionate Opinions," Delaware Today, May 1987, pp. 61-65, 102-104
Paula Hall, "Andrew Wyeth-Purely a Personal Expression," Gilcrease Magazine of American History and Art, January 1989, pp. 1-21
Richard Meryman, Andrew Wyeth: A Secret Life, New York, 1996, p. 350