HELEN OF TROY       by David Fugere  7/15/2014

Greek mythology records that: Paris, son of the Trojan King Priam, searched the world over in quest of the most beautiful woman. Finding her in Helen, the wife of the Greek King Menelaus, they ran away together to Troy. Helen and Paris thus are considered responsible for the Trojan War that followed. The war lasted many years resulting in multi thousands of lives lost. Agamemnon the brother of King Menelaus dispatched a thousand Greek ships to accomplish the siege of Troy and avenge Paris’s usurpation of his brother’s wife Helen. The costly war could not be won by siege, but was rather won through by the use of the stealth Trojan-Horse containing Greek warriors.                                                                                                                                                              

King Menelaus advised that no soldier was to kill Helen, he would reserve the pleasure of retribution for himself. In my painting, I attempted to depict the moment, when the king was confronted with Helen’s womanly guile. She exposed her body resulting in the King’s lustful change of heart. He returned to Greece with his unfaithful but beautiful wife Helen.  

PAINTING DETAILS: The Helen Painting took over four year in execution. The development of the concept took over two years. Many cartoon drawings and a clay scale models were needed to arrive at and develop the final pose that would best describe the details of the Mythological story. A photo session with models and costumes was performed, more cartoons drawn, rough drafts and then painting was started and abandoned for lack of a proper telling pose. Helen’s final long sought after pose was finally found in an Italian fresco. I then reassembled and photographed the models and painting was resumed. In all, the entire project took over four years and hundreds of hours. The lesson learned is; be careful what you start.