Helen

In this life-size sculpture, André Harvey captured the form and personality of a particular pig that he encountered in rural Pennsylvania. After modeling her in clay, Harvey created a small bronze sculpture of the pig, The Portrait Sitter (also in the museum’s collection), followed by this life-size version.

Harvey grew up in the Brandywine Valley and in 1969, after briefly working as a journalist, studied sculpture with Michel Anasse in France and with Charles Parks in Delaware in the 1970s. He established a studio at Breck’s Mill on the Brandywine River in Wilmington, Delaware, where he has created the highly detailed sculptures of animals, birds, insects and plant forms for which he is best known. Helen, like much of Harvey’s work, was made by the artist using the lost-wax process.