Found some Peter Helck artwork of early 1900's racing

Peter Helck (1893-1988) was born in NYC in 1893 and studied art at the Art Students League in Manhattan. From the 20s-40's Helck was a successful magazine illustrator and advertising artist. In the 1940's he did a series of paintings / prints for Esquire magazine, in which he recreated the excitement of automobile races from the first decades of the 20th century.

Guess what i found, framed, at an estate sale recently ($40 bucks for all, btw)? These are now hanging in the spare bedroom of the 1907 Craftsman styled bungalow i've been restoring in downtown San Jose:



Above is the 1915 400 mile International Grand Prix held in San Francisco, as part of the Panama-Pacific Exposition. This is Dario Resta, the winner, driving his 5.6L Peugeot (#6.)

-scott noteboom

 

This is the Grand Prix of the Automobile Club of France, a 477 mile race held in Dieppe, France in 1907. #F-2 is Felice Nazzaro, the winner, driving his 16L Fiat.

-scott noteboom

 

Lastly is a scene from the 1908 Vanderbilt Cup race in Long Island, NY. Winner was #16 here, George Robertson friving his 16.2L Locomobile. George was American.



-scott noteboom

 

BTW: If anyone has more information on this artwork, or has any more-- please share, as i'd love to learn more.

Thanks,

-scott noteboom

 

Man that's a great find...40 bux are you kidding me! Love that style

 

Those are nice! - I love old automotive art!

 

Great deal Scott!! I'm jealous, by the way do you know it's my birthday tomorrow (march 14th), I'll be 41 (hint,hint).
Those tiny engines back the, George Robertson's Locomobile only had one thousand cubic inches, I wonder if it was a inline four, six or what ever.

 

Happy Birthday, Johnny. I miss hanging out with ya. Im still in all work and no play mode, which has gotten real old...

- scott noteboom

 

Yeah, haven't seen ya in a while. I've been working a lot too, seven days a week mostly, but it's worth it to get my coupe going. Painting it this weekend and hope to have it done in two weeks. See ya soon!

 

Great find; I've always loved Helck's work. You probably know that Helck himself owned this Locomobile for most of his life. I think his granson still has it.

 

House is looking good on the blog and the artwork ROCKS. Cool man.

 

Some links to info on #16.
The last link is to a nice collection of Peter Helck's work.
http://www.vanderbiltcupraces.com/index.php/cars/car/locomobile_16_1908
http://www.remarkablecars.com/ppads/showproduct.php/product/2574/cat/all
http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z10059/1906-Locomobile-Old-16.aspx
http://www.ddavid.com/formula1/loco.htm
http://www.americanartarchives.com/helck,peter.htm

 

Score! Awesome. $40?

 

awesome links, boldventure! being that our room doesnt have a bed yet, anissa and i have been sleeping in the spare bedroom. i get to wake up to these racing images as the first thing i see in the morning (she wouldnt let me hang them in our bedroom, something about not allowing me to have a "guy room.") being a bay area guy, my favorite is the race through SF in 1915.

dig learning more on Helck. Talented guy.

-scott noteboom

 

I like to Goggle for that kind of information. You might check the second of third quarter issues of Automobile Quarterly as well. I borrow them from the library when I can. There were some recent articles on the Vanderbilt Cup races and racers. There was a story about #16 there as well. Helck was a collector of memorabilia and he used some of it in his art work.

 

In 1974, the Harry N. Abrams Co. (Book publishers) published a collection of Peter Helk's work in a large format book en***led Great Auto Races. Many of Peter's paintings were reproduced in full page size (11" X 13" overall) such that they could be removed from the book and framed. All told there are 217 illustrations in the book-many of which are preliminarey sketches or detail studies of portions of larger works. There are 90 of the full page color plates. My guess is that what you have are framed plates from that book.

QUOTE=notebooms;5014266]BTW: If anyone has more information on this artwork, or has any more-- please share, as i'd love to learn more.

Thanks,

-scott noteboom[/QUOTE]

 

Thanks for the info. What i have is sized 22" W x 16" H, so I don't believe it's from that book.

-scott noteboom

 

Old 16 is in the Ford Museum in Dearborn now. I helped with preservation efforts after the purchase from Peter's son, Jerry.
If you get a chance to attend Old Car Festival in mid September at Greenfield Village, they fire it up and drive it around the village.

Dan

 

Score