The Helga Pictures are a series of more than 240 paintings and drawings of German model Helga Testorf (born c. 1933 or c. 1939) created by Andrew Wyeth

Andrew Wyeth

Andrew Newell Wyeth was a visual artist, primarily a realist painter, working predominantly in a regionalist style. He was one of the best-known U.S. artists of the middle 20th century....

 (1917–2009) between 1971 and 1985. Testorf was a neighbor of Wyeth's in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, 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 Edouard Manet

Édouard Manet

Édouard Manet was a French painter. One of the first 19th-century artists to approach modern-life subjects, he was a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism....

. To John Updike

John Updike

John Hoyer Updike was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic....

, her body "is what Winslow Homer

Winslow Homer

Winslow Homer was an American landscape painter and printmaker, best known for his marine subjects. He is considered one of the foremost painters in 19th century America and a preeminent figure in American art....

's maidens would have looked like beneath their calico."

Explaining the series, Wyeth said, "The difference between me and a lot of painters is that I have to have a personal contact with my models.... I have to become enamored. Smitten. 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". Art historian John Wilmerding

John Wilmerding

John Currie Wilmerding, , is an American art professor and curator whose writings on American art have made him one of the most defining and highly regarded figures within the field.- Biography :...

 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". For art critic James Gardner, Testorf "has the curious distinction of being the last person to be made famous by a painting".

Born in Germany, Helga entered a Prussian Protestant convent chosen by her father in 1955. After becoming seriously ill she left the convent and lived in Mannheim

Mannheim

Mannheim is a city in southwestern Germany. With about 315,000 inhabitants, Mannheim is the second-largest city in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, following the capital city of Stuttgart....

, where she studied to be a nurse and a masseuse. In 1957, she met John Testorf, a German-born, naturalized American citizen, whom she married in 1958. By 1961 they were living in Philadelphia, where she worked in a tannery, but they soon moved to Chadds Ford. There she raised a family that would grow to include four children, and acted as caretaker to farmer Karl Kuerner, an elderly neighbor who was a friend and model for Wyeth.
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. 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

George Alexis Weymouth

George Alexis Weymouth, known better as “Frolic” Weymouth, is an American artist, whip or stager, and conservationist. He lives in and protects the Brandywine Valley.-Heredity and name:...

. When the existence of the pictures was made public images of Testorf graced the covers of both Time

Time (magazine)

Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

and Newsweek

Newsweek

Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...

magazines. Testorf, although flattered by the paintings, was upset by the publicity and controversy they provoked. Although Wyeth denied that there had been a physical relationship with Testorf, the secrecy surrounding the sessions and public speculation of an affair created a strain in the Wyeths' marriage.

Well after the paintings were finished, Testorf remained close to Wyeth and helped care for him in his old age.

List of works

Tempera on panel:

• Letting Her Hair Down (1972)
• Sheepskin (1973)
• Braids (1977)
• Farm Road (1979)
• Day Dream (1980)
• Penis (1982)

Drybrush and/or watercolor on paper:

• Black Velvet (1972)
• The Prussian (1973)
• In the Orchard (several versions, 1973–85)
• Seated by a Tree (1973, other versions from 1973 and 1982)
• Crown of Flowers (1974)
• Loden Coat (1975)
• Easter Sunday (1975; a non-Helga watercolor also bears this title)
• Barracoon (1976; a non-Helga tempera also bears this title)
• On Her Knees (1977)
• Drawn Shade (1977)
• Overflow (1978)
• Walking In Her Cape Coat (1979)
• Night Shadow (1979)
• Pageboy (1980)
• Knapsack (two versions, both 1980)
• Lovers (1981)
• From the Back (two versions, both 1981)
• In the Doorway (three versions, all 1981)
• Cape Coat (1982)
• Campfire (two versions, both 1982)
• Sun Shield (1982)
• Flotation Device (1984)
• Autumn (1984)
• Refuge (1985)
• Red Sweater (1987)
• Helga's Back (1991)
• Barefoot (1992)
• Uphill (1999)
• Gone (2002)