The Andrew & Betsy Wyeth Study Center of the Brandywine Museum of Art confirms that this object is recorded in Betsy James Wyeth's files.

Andrew Wyeth frequently portrayed acquaintances, friends, and neighbors he encountered near his home and studio in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. Bill Loper, a blacksmith and handyman from the small community known as "Little Africa," left a lasting impression on Wyeth, leading to a small group of works featuring Loper's steel hook. Wyeth explained:

"Bill lost his right hand in a train accident. It was replaced with a steel hook which fascinated me, so of course I put it in an oil portrait. The paint was still wet when I showed the painting to my father. He took one look, picked up his paint rag, and rubbed the hook out saying "We don't need that!" with such emphasis, I never dared to paint the hook again until years later." [1]

By the early 1950s, Bill had passed away, prompting Wyeth to portray Bill's brother, Ben, and nephew, James, in several notable works, such as the evocative tempera portrait A Crow Flew By (1949-50; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). By 1984, when the current work was executed, Wyeth's connection with the Loper family had waned, but his fascination with the hook persisted, compelling him to revisit it.

Left Hook shares a similar composition and subject matter with another Andrew Wyeth watercolor painted the following year, currently in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., titled Field Hand (1985). In contrast, the National Gallery of Art's watercolor features Bill Loper seated behind the log, with a verdant background indicating a spring or summer setting, unlike the winter scene depicted in the present watercolor. By excluding the figure from Left Hook, Wyeth creates a portrait in absentia, a favored artistic device wherein he indirectly portrays a subject through connected objects. Examples of this method can be found in works such as Sea Boots, symbolizing fisherman and friend Walt Anderson in Maine (1976; Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan), or in Wyeth's distinctive self-portrait, Trodden Weed (1951; Private Collection), which hones in on the artist's feet walking in swashbuckler's boots.

[1] Andrew Wyeth quoted in Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, Andrew Wyeth: Close Friends, 2001, Jackson: Mississippi Museum of Art in association with University of Washington Press, Seattle, p.28