Artists & Artisans
Wyeth, Andrew
Andrew Wyeth prevails as one of the greatest leaders of realist American art, leaving an indelible mark on the cultural landscape. Wyeth’s ability to capture the essence of rural American life and the passage of time amidst an increasingly urbanized country has earned him a revered place in history. While Wyeth's celebrated rural landscapes and interiors are visually pleasing, his work also delves into the complexities of the human psyche. His paintings can now be found in the collection of major arts institutions nationwide, such as the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Seattle Art Museum and more.
Wyeth’s Beginnings
Andrew Newell Wyeth was born on July 12, 1917, in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, a small village in the Brandywine Valley. Andrew was the youngest of five children to his father, N.C. Wyeth, a successful illustrator in his own right, and Carolyn Borckius Wyeth. Due to his poor health, Wyeth was educated at home by his father, who encouraged his son’s quick-growing aptitude for drawing. At the age of three, Wyeth’s family began spending summers in Maine. Summers by the coast and an educational upbringing centered around Robert Frost and Henry David Thoreau, a favorite of his father’s, instilled in young Wyeth a profound love for nature.
From the 1920s onward, Wyeth's father attained celebrity status and began entertaining luminaries like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Mary Pickford as guests. The frequent visits from renowned creatives and his father's artistic endeavors fostered a highly creative atmosphere at home. During his teenage years, Andrew began accompanying his father to his studio for rigorous art training, favoring watercolor for its blend of precise detail and Impressionistic qualities. His father instilled a sense of inner self-confidence in his son’s art practice, once writing to Andrew, “I know from my own experience that when I create with any degree of strength and beauty I have no thought of consequence. Anyone who creates for effect- to score a hit- does not know what he is missing!” In the spring of 1933, Wyeth participated in his first exhibition at the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts in Delaware.
Early Career and Mature Period
At age 20, Wyeth held his first solo exhibition at Robert Macbeth’s Gallery after making an acquaintance with the dealer following his Wilmington exhibition. After two days, every single piece in the exhibition sold. His destiny as an artist was cemented. He continued experimenting with watercolors and dry-brush techniques, with a more sparing and limited color range than his father’s works. In the late 1930s, Wyeth was introduced to another technique by his sister’s husband, Peter Hurd. Hurd taught Wyeth the way of egg tempera painting, which he used and mastered throughout his long career, calling back the favored medium of the Italian Renaissance.
Wyeth met his wife, Betsy Merle James, in 1939 on the coast of Maine. Only one year later, to his father’s chagrin, they married on May 15, 1940. N.C. Wyeth was incredibly suspicious of Betsy, for he feared she would control his son’s artistic practice and life, a role that he had played since Andrew was a young boy. Moreover, tensions began to rise between father and son as Andrew’s fame surpassed his father's, bringing some jealousy into their relationship. Nonetheless, Andrew balanced his love and admiration for his father with that of his wife, Betsy, who became Andrew’s business manager and curator of his artistic estate. She also raised their two sons, Nicholas and Jamie, the latter of whom became the third generation of Wyeth artists.
Mainly painting landscapes or solitary figures, Wyeth painted largely in a realistic and regionalist style, with his favorite subjects being Chadds Ford and his summer home in Cushing, Maine. In 1943, MoMA curator Dorothy Miller included two tempera paintings in her exhibition Americans 1943: American Realists and Magic Realists. He was subsequently labeled a magic realist since his rural landscapes were both mysterious and mesmerizing to the eye. In 1945, N.C. Wyeth and Andrew’s nephew were killed in a train accident when their car stalled on railroad tracks. The event became pivotal in Wyeth’s career, for he felt the incident pushed his artwork into a more emotional style, replete with a macabre air in somber colors and moods. The site of the accident, Kuerner’s Hill, became a recurring setting of his paintings, such as Winter 1946. The event also sparked Wyeth’s beginning of portraiture, especially of those he was close with, to immortalize them in his life.
Late Period
Following World War II, Wyeth grappled with the stories of death and destruction that made headlines alongside survivors' return to the nation. His works took on a more symbolic nature, such as simple images of pumpkins holding numerous meanings beyond their straightforward depictions. With the rise of Pop Art and Minimalism in the 1950s, Wyeth's work faced growing criticism for its perceived detachment from contemporary events. Defying this judgment, Wyeth began exploring sexuality through portraiture. Beginning in the 1970s, Wyeth began painting his neighbor Helga Testorf both clothed and unclothed for 15 years, amassing 240 sketches and paintings of the model. The collection of work, known as The Helga Pictures, was done secretively, with Helga and Andrew meeting privately for modeling sessions without Betsy's knowledge. When the National Gallery exhibited the works in 1986, they became an instant and controversial sensation for Wyeth's intensive artistic exploration into a single model and its secretive nature. One of the paintings, Surf, combined Helga with another of his muses, Siri Erickson, combining erotic intimacy with stark isolation. The controversy of the 1980s reinserted Wyeth into the public eye, though he continued to refuse anyone to watch his painting process, saying, “It would be like somebody watching you have sex - painting is that personal to me.”
Wyeth’s Legacy
Wyeth passed away on January 16, 2009, in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, following a brief battle with illness at age 91. Although he remained a realist painter long after abstraction made headway as the leading artistic style in America, Wyeth inspired countless artists, including his own son Jamie. His artistic output, which spanned decades, reveals a deep connection to the American landscape, meticulous attention to detail, and an innately emotional resonance. Wyeth redefined realism and the view of American rurality during intense urbanization. The iconic imagery of his favored muses, Christina and Helga, continues to captivate audiences for their solitary eroticism, transcending the boundaries of the art world to become timeless cultural symbols. His contributions to American art will certainly be cherished and celebrated for decades to come.Artists & Artisans
Wyeth, Andrew
Andrew Wyeth prevails as one of the greatest leaders of realist American art, leaving an indelible mark on the cultural landscape. Wyeth’s ability to capture the essence of rural American life and the passage of time amidst an increasingly urbanized country has earned him a revered place in history. While Wyeth's celebrated rural landscapes and interiors are visually pleasing, his work also delves into the complexities of the human psyche. His paintings can now be found in the collection of major arts institutions nationwide, such as the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Seattle Art Museum and more.
Wyeth’s Beginnings
Andrew Newell Wyeth was born on July 12, 1917, in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, a small village in the Brandywine Valley. Andrew was the youngest of five children to his father, N.C. Wyeth, a successful illustrator in his own right, and Carolyn Borckius Wyeth. Due to his poor health, Wyeth was educated at home by his father, who encouraged his son’s quick-growing aptitude for drawing. At the age of three, Wyeth’s family began spending summers in Maine. Summers by the coast and an educational upbringing centered around Robert Frost and Henry David Thoreau, a favorite of his father’s, instilled in young Wyeth a profound love for nature.
From the 1920s onward, Wyeth's father attained celebrity status and began entertaining luminaries like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Mary Pickford as guests. The frequent visits from renowned creatives and his father's artistic endeavors fostered a highly creative atmosphere at home. During his teenage years, Andrew began accompanying his father to his studio for rigorous art training, favoring watercolor for its blend of precise detail and Impressionistic qualities. His father instilled a sense of inner self-confidence in his son’s art practice, once writing to Andrew, “I know from my own experience that when I create with any degree of strength and beauty I have no thought of consequence. Anyone who creates for effect- to score a hit- does not know what he is missing!” In the spring of 1933, Wyeth participated in his first exhibition at the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts in Delaware.
Early Career and Mature Period
At age 20, Wyeth held his first solo exhibition at Robert Macbeth’s Gallery after making an acquaintance with the dealer following his Wilmington exhibition. After two days, every single piece in the exhibition sold. His destiny as an artist was cemented. He continued experimenting with watercolors and dry-brush techniques, with a more sparing and limited color range than his father’s works. In the late 1930s, Wyeth was introduced to another technique by his sister’s husband, Peter Hurd. Hurd taught Wyeth the way of egg tempera painting, which he used and mastered throughout his long career, calling back the favored medium of the Italian Renaissance.
Wyeth met his wife, Betsy Merle James, in 1939 on the coast of Maine. Only one year later, to his father’s chagrin, they married on May 15, 1940. N.C. Wyeth was incredibly suspicious of Betsy, for he feared she would control his son’s artistic practice and life, a role that he had played since Andrew was a young boy. Moreover, tensions began to rise between father and son as Andrew’s fame surpassed his father's, bringing some jealousy into their relationship. Nonetheless, Andrew balanced his love and admiration for his father with that of his wife, Betsy, who became Andrew’s business manager and curator of his artistic estate. She also raised their two sons, Nicholas and Jamie, the latter of whom became the third generation of Wyeth artists.
Mainly painting landscapes or solitary figures, Wyeth painted largely in a realistic and regionalist style, with his favorite subjects being Chadds Ford and his summer home in Cushing, Maine. In 1943, MoMA curator Dorothy Miller included two tempera paintings in her exhibition Americans 1943: American Realists and Magic Realists. He was subsequently labeled a magic realist since his rural landscapes were both mysterious and mesmerizing to the eye. In 1945, N.C. Wyeth and Andrew’s nephew were killed in a train accident when their car stalled on railroad tracks. The event became pivotal in Wyeth’s career, for he felt the incident pushed his artwork into a more emotional style, replete with a macabre air in somber colors and moods. The site of the accident, Kuerner’s Hill, became a recurring setting of his paintings, such as Winter 1946. The event also sparked Wyeth’s beginning of portraiture, especially of those he was close with, to immortalize them in his life.
Late Period
Following World War II, Wyeth grappled with the stories of death and destruction that made headlines alongside survivors' return to the nation. His works took on a more symbolic nature, such as simple images of pumpkins holding numerous meanings beyond their straightforward depictions. With the rise of Pop Art and Minimalism in the 1950s, Wyeth's work faced growing criticism for its perceived detachment from contemporary events. Defying this judgment, Wyeth began exploring sexuality through portraiture. Beginning in the 1970s, Wyeth began painting his neighbor Helga Testorf both clothed and unclothed for 15 years, amassing 240 sketches and paintings of the model. The collection of work, known as The Helga Pictures, was done secretively, with Helga and Andrew meeting privately for modeling sessions without Betsy's knowledge. When the National Gallery exhibited the works in 1986, they became an instant and controversial sensation for Wyeth's intensive artistic exploration into a single model and its secretive nature. One of the paintings, Surf, combined Helga with another of his muses, Siri Erickson, combining erotic intimacy with stark isolation. The controversy of the 1980s reinserted Wyeth into the public eye, though he continued to refuse anyone to watch his painting process, saying, “It would be like somebody watching you have sex - painting is that personal to me.”
