205 Helen Wills (1905-1998) SELF PORTRAIT


signed in pencil, an etching exhibited in the 1932 Olympic Arts Competition and Exhibition in Los Angeles, exhibition label verso, mounted together with a cut signature HELEN WILLS MOODY dated from the same year 1932, the etching 15 by 10cm., 6 by 4in.; sold together with an official daily program for the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic Games, 6th August, carrying two advertisements for the Olympic Arts Competition and Exhibition and map (2)


Helen Wills, known as Helen Wills Moody after her marriage to Frederick Moody in 1929, won a total of 19 Grand Slam singles tennis titles between 1923 and 1938, comprising four wins in the French Open, eight at Wimbledon, and seven in the US Open, with twelve doubles and mixed doubles, a total of 31 Grand Slams.


Wills also won two Olympic gold medals in Paris in 1924 (singles & doubles), the last time lawn tennis was included in the Olympic programme until its revival in 1988. Disappointingly, therefore, when the Olympic Games came to her native California in 1932 she was unable to compete even though she was still very much at the peak of her powers winning the French and Wimbledon titles earlier in the year. Helen Wills’s participation in the Games, however, was achieved through her artistic talent.


In 1928 Helen Wills had illustrated her own book ‘Tennis’ with a series of etchings of tennis players which included a self portrait head on the frontispiece with three of her demonstrating strokes of play. In 1932 her artistic exploits extended to entering her work in the Olympic Arts Competition and Exhibition.


The world renowned artist Diego Rivera (1886-1957) was introduced to Helen Wills in November 1930 and later asked her to sit for the head of the central figure of ‘California’ for the fresco in the San Francisco Stock Exchange. £1,000 - 1,500


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