Study for "Barracoon"

Executed in 1976, Study for 'Barracoon' is one of a series of drawings and paintings depicting Andrew Wyeth's secret muse, Helga Testorf and one of several preliminary drawings for his seminal tempera, Barracoon. The name of the series is derived from the aforementioned tempera, in which Helga is transformed into a prone African American woman with her hands bound together in front of her face. Wyeth explained, "The name is Betsy's. Although what she saw was a version I did in which I turned Helga into a black woman. Barracoon refers to the prison where they kept the slaves so that people wanting to buy could look at 'em." (as quoted in Helga on Paper, New York, 2006, p. 72) The African American version of Barracoon is largely imaginary, combining Helga's body, the feet of Wyeth's long-time employee, African American Betty Hammond, and the artist's own hands. The woman is also placed in a generic room without any specific identifying details. Wyeth considered the work to be one of his most successful, writing in his autobiography, "My best nude--though it's way beyond a nude. What I was trying to achieve was something dateless. I was lying in bed and thinking of drawing Helga like this and I also got to thinking of Karl Kuerner and the black woman he'd told me he'd once taken up into his attic and the picture just spilled out." (T. Hoving, Andrew Wyeth: Autobiography, Boston, 1995, p. 108)

This work will be included in Betsy James Wyeth's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work.