Peter Helck Painting: “The match race that never happened”
I recently purchased seven works of art created by my favorite racing artist Peter Helck. The above painting depicted an imaginary match race between Barney's Oldfield's Green Dragon and Walter Christie's 1906 V-4 Front-Wheel Drive Christie.
Below is today's research on this beautiful 6" x 12" "casein on board" painting.
Enjoy,
Howard Kroplick
Bonhams auctioned a pencil sketch of the painting in 2029 entitled "Barney Oldfield in The Green Dragon. Bonhams noted "pencil sketch, depicting Oldfield overtaking a front- engined Christie in an Empire Trophy Race, circa 1906, on paper 7 x 10in, mounted, framed and glazed."
The driver of the Christie was not identifed.
In Peter Helck's wonderful 1975 book "Great Auto Races", Peter depicts two related imaginary match races. Here is the Christie's Front-Wheel Driver showing the "the 1906 V-4 in action."
In this painting, Helck depicts the 1905 Premier built for the 1905 Vanderbilt Cup Race with Barney Oldfield's Green Dragon. He notes " ther is no evidence that the huge, naked Premier ever matched paces with B.O.'s "Green Dragon" as shown in the painting (another bit of whimsy).
Barney Oldfield in the 1907 V-4 Christie, the next front-wheel driver after the 1906 Christie was wrecked.
As documented on VanderbiltCupRaces.com, Peter Helck and Barney Oldfield became friends in 1945.
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