GENERAL DESCRIPTION
In 1902, a twenty-year-old N.C. (Newell Convers) Wyeth traveled from his parents' home in Needham, Massachusetts to the Brandywine Valley, finding in that rural region of Pennsylvania and northern Delaware a countryside much like the one in which he had grown up and loved. Wyeth's early training came from the Mechanic Arts School, the Massachusetts Normal Art School (now the Massachusetts College of Art and Design), and the Eric Pape School of Art. He moved to Pennsylvania to study with Howard Pyle, "the father of American illustration."
Wyeth's fame as an illustrator began in 1903 and continued until his death in 1945. Carrying on Pyle's tradition, Wyeth created more than three thousand images to pair with popular novels. His most famous set of illustrations was for Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island (1911). Almost equally well-known were his illustrations for James Fennimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans (1919). In addition to literary publications, Wyeth designed covers for many popular magazines, including Saturday Evening Post, Ladies' Home Journal, Harper’s Monthly, and McClure’s.
Despite his lucrative commercial career, Wyeth aspired to be recognized for his easel paintings. He painted boldly in oil on large canvases, and he treated a wide variety of subjects, the first of which was the American West, and later became the people and landscapes surrounding his home in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. Wyeth purchased a summer vacation home in Port Clyde, Maine, in 1920. When the family spent their first summer in there in 1930, Wyeth named their house "Eight Bells" after Winslow Homer's famed image of two fisherman working amidst a frothy, gray sea (Eight Bells, 1886, Addison Gallery of American Art). Wyeth shared his artistic training and respect for 19th-century American realists with his children. His youngest child, Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009), and his grandson, Jamie Wyeth (b. 1946), also became famous for their painted views of New England. In the 1930s, N.C. Wyeth learned how to mix and apply tempera paint from his son-in-law, Peter Hurd (1904-1984), and he used the medium for the majority of his late paintings.
Drawn from
- Gail Davitt, DMA Biographical essay, 1987, Mildred R. and Frederick M. Mayer Library files.
- Anne Bromberg, "The Wyeth's Vision of America," Dallas Museum of Art Bulletin (Fall/Winter 1987), 12-15.
- Christine B. Podmaniczky, "N.C. Wyeth in Maine," Farnsworth Art Museum (Rockland, ME), http://www.farnsworthmuseum.org/nc-wyeth. Accessed 2 January 2015. Biographical essay adapted from Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth in Maine, A Centenary Exhibition (Rockland, ME: Farnsworth Art Museum, 1982).
NOTES
I am removing the tags #incomplete and #routed from this note and retagging it with #draft so that is is pulled into Google Docs. The content of this note has already been reviewed by Sue and Andrea.
Removed TMS tags for 1938.22, 1960.69, 1961.118
Added artist full name to TMS record.
Artist dates and geographies added to TMS:
- b. October 22, 1882, Needham, Massachusetts
- d. October 19, 1945, Chadds Ford, PA- died in an automobile accident at a railroad crossing
- Wilmington, Delaware- training- (1902-1904) Attend Howard Pyle School of Art (located in Wilmington, DE and Chadds Ford, PA)
- Chadds Ford, PA-training- (1902-1904) Attend Howard Pyle School of Art (located in Wilmington, DE and Chadds Ford, PA)
- Southwest (region)- worked- 1905- Moved to Southwest, Utes and Navaho territories to study Western culture for future illustration commissions.
- Port Clyde, ME- worked- (1910, 1919-1945) First traveled the Maine coast in 1910, then purchased summer home and property in 1919 but did not stay at the home until 1930 due to extensive renovations.
- Chadds Ford, PA- worked- (1906-1945)
Additional resource that could be scanned or reviewed for things to add to object files- Mayer Library, artist file- contains exhibition and published materials, multiple magazine reviews. Some of these resources would be great to scan, but were not published by the DMA. It would be beneficial to have the artist file cross-referenced (or duplicated) in the registrar's object file.
I added the UMO tag for the photograph of Wyeth added to Piction by Jessica Pirkle, summer 2016. I am removing the tag %pictionJP from this note (11/17/2016).
ASSOCIATED CONTENT CHUNKS
AUDIO ASSETS
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IMAGE ASSETS
Side Photographed Portrait of N.C. Wyeth in 1920
Source: Charles Scribner's Sons Art Reference Dept. records, 1839-1962, Smithsonian, Wikimedia Commons, accessed July 13, 2016.
tagged- 265933673: UMO
WEB RESOURCES
- N.C. Wyeth Catalogue Raisonné~Look through this compendium of the artist's work, published by the Brandywine River Museum, Brandywine Conservancy, Chadds Ford, PA.
- N.C. Wyeth in Maine~Read Christine B. Podmaniczky's biographical essay on Wyeth through the Farnsworth Art Museum's website.
- N.C. Wyeth at the National Museum of American Illustration~See examples of Wyeth's commercial art and read about how his illustrations set a new standard for his generation.
- Winslow Homer's Eight Bells~Read about the painting that inspired the name of N.C. Wyeth's seaside home.
ARCHIVAL RESOURCES
- Dallas Museum of Art. An American Vision: Three Generations of Wyeth Art, 1987; Teacher packet for the exhibition 'An American Vision: Three Generations of Wyeth Art,' September 29-November 29, 1987 held at the Dallas Museum of Art. Packet contains information on the lives and works of N.C., Andrew, and Jamie Wyeth and classroom activities. tagged- 12055918: UMO
- Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. Famous Families in American Art, 1960; Catalog from the exhibition, 'Famous Families in American Art,' October 8-November 20, 1960, held at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. Includes: list of artists and artworks in the exhibition, selected images. tagged- 12711937: UMO
- Anne Bromberg, "The Wyeth's Vision of America," Dallas Museum of Art Bulletin (Fall/Winter 1987), 12-15. tagged- 12054414: UMO
FUN FACTS
- In the 1920s N.C. Wyeth's friends and occasional house guests included F. Scott Fitzgerald who later befriended Gerald Murphy (1888-1964) whose Razor and Watch (1963.74.FA and 1963.75.FA) are also in the DMA collection.
- In addition to his Maine home, Wyeth also used Homer's Eight Bells as the name for the family's twenty-eight foot lobster boat that they used for leisure outings.
- Wyeth's list of published illustrations is impressive. In addition to Treasure Island and The Last of the Mohicans, he produced illustrations for: Kidnapped (1913), The Black Arrow (1916), The Boy's King Arthur (1917), Robin Hood (1917), The Mysterious Island (1918), Robinson Crusoe (1920), Rip Van Winkle (1921), The Deerslayer (1925), Men of Concord (1936), Trending Into Maine (1938), and The Yearling (1939).
- Among his many advertisement illustrations, N.C. Wyeth produced imagery for Lucky Strike cigarettes, a company that hired many leading American artists in the 20th century. Other artists who worked for Lucky Strike and are represented in the DMA collection include Thomas Hart Benton, George Schreiber, and Frederic Taubes.
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General Description
In 1902, a twenty-year-old N.C. (Newell Convers) Wyeth traveled from his parents' home in Needham, Massachusetts to the Brandywine Valley, finding in that rural region of Pennsylvania and northern Delaware a countryside much like the one in which he had grown up and loved. Wyeth's early training came from the Mechanic Arts School, the Massachusetts Normal Art School (now the Massachusetts College of Art and Design), and the Eric Pape School of Art. He moved to Pennsylvania to study with Howard Pyle, "the father of American illustration."
Wyeth's fame as an illustrator began in 1903 and continued until his death in 1945. Carrying on Pyle's tradition, Wyeth created more than three thousand images to pair with popular novels. His most famous set of illustrations was for Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island (1911). Almost equally well-known were his illustrations for James Fennimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans (1919). In addition to literary publications, Wyeth designed covers for many popular magazines, including Saturday Evening Post, Ladies' Home Journal, Harper’s Monthly, and McClure’s.
Despite his lucrative commercial career, Wyeth aspired to be recognized for his easel paintings. He painted boldly in oil on large canvases, and he treated a wide variety of subjects, the first of which was the American West, and later became the people and landscapes surrounding his home in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. Wyeth purchased a summer vacation home in Port Clyde, Maine, in 1920. When the family spent their first summer in there in 1930, Wyeth named their house "Eight Bells" after Winslow Homer's famed image of two fisherman working amidst a frothy, gray sea (Eight Bells, 1886, Addison Gallery of American Art). Wyeth shared his artistic training and respect for 19th-century American realists with his children. His youngest child, Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009), and his grandson, Jamie Wyeth (b. 1946), also became famous for their painted views of New England. In the 1930s, N.C. Wyeth learned how to mix and apply tempera paint from his son-in-law, Peter Hurd (1904-1984), and he used the medium for the majority of his late paintings.
Drawn from
- Gail Davitt, DMA Biographical essay, 1987, Mildred R. and Frederick M. Mayer Library files.
- Anne Bromberg, "The Wyeth's Vision of America," Dallas Museum of Art Bulletin (Fall/Winter 1987), 12-15.
- Christine B. Podmaniczky, "N.C. Wyeth in Maine," Farnsworth Art Museum (Rockland, ME), http://www.farnsworthmuseum.org/nc-wyeth. Accessed 2 January 2015. Biographical essay adapted from Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth in Maine, A Centenary Exhibition (Rockland, ME: Farnsworth Art Museum, 1982).
Fun Facts
- In the 1920s N.C. Wyeth's friends and occasional house guests included F. Scott Fitzgerald who later befriended Gerald Murphy (1888-1964) whose Razor and Watch (1963.74.FA and 1963.75.FA) are also in the DMA collection.
- In addition to his Maine home, Wyeth also used Homer's Eight Bells as the name for the family's twenty-eight foot lobster boat that they used for leisure outings.
- Wyeth's list of published illustrations is impressive. In addition to Treasure Island and The Last of the Mohicans, he produced illustrations for: Kidnapped (1913), The Black Arrow (1916), The Boy's King Arthur (1917), Robin Hood (1917), The Mysterious Island (1918), Robinson Crusoe (1920), Rip Van Winkle (1921), The Deerslayer (1925), Men of Concord (1936), Trending Into Maine (1938), and The Yearling (1939).
- Among his many advertisement illustrations, N.C. Wyeth produced imagery for Lucky Strike cigarettes, a company that hired many leading American artists in the 20th century. Other artists who worked for Lucky Strike and are represented in the DMA collection include Thomas Hart Benton, George Schreiber, and Frederic Taubes.
Archival Resources
- Dallas Museum of Art. An American Vision: Three Generations of Wyeth Art, 1987; Teacher packet for the exhibition 'An American Vision: Three Generations of Wyeth Art,' September 29-November 29, 1987 held at the Dallas Museum of Art. Packet contains information on the lives and works of N.C., Andrew, and Jamie Wyeth and classroom activities. tagged- 12055918: UMO
- Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. Famous Families in American Art, 1960; Catalog from the exhibition, 'Famous Families in American Art,' October 8-November 20, 1960, held at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. Includes: list of artists and artworks in the exhibition, selected images. tagged- 12711937: UMO
- Anne Bromberg, "The Wyeth's Vision of America," Dallas Museum of Art Bulletin (Fall/Winter 1987), 12-15. tagged- 12054414: UMO
Web Resources
- N.C. Wyeth Catalogue Raisonné~Look through this compendium of the artist's work, published by the Brandywine River Museum, Brandywine Conservancy, Chadds Ford, PA.
- N.C. Wyeth in Maine~Read Christine B. Podmaniczky's biographical essay on Wyeth through the Farnsworth Art Museum's website.
- N.C. Wyeth at the National Museum of American Illustration~See examples of Wyeth's commercial art and read about how his illustrations set a new standard for his generation.
- Winslow Homer's Eight Bells~Read about the painting that inspired the name of N.C. Wyeth's seaside home.
Notes
I am removing the tags #incomplete and #routed from this note and retagging it with #draft so that is is pulled into Google Docs. The content of this note has already been reviewed by Sue and Andrea.
Removed TMS tags for 1938.22, 1960.69, 1961.118
Added artist full name to TMS record.
Artist dates and geographies added to TMS:
- b. October 22, 1882, Needham, Massachusetts
- d. October 19, 1945, Chadds Ford, PA- died in an automobile accident at a railroad crossing
- Wilmington, Delaware- training- (1902-1904) Attend Howard Pyle School of Art (located in Wilmington, DE and Chadds Ford, PA)
- Chadds Ford, PA-training- (1902-1904) Attend Howard Pyle School of Art (located in Wilmington, DE and Chadds Ford, PA)
- Southwest (region)- worked- 1905- Moved to Southwest, Utes and Navaho territories to study Western culture for future illustration commissions.
- Port Clyde, ME- worked- (1910, 1919-1945) First traveled the Maine coast in 1910, then purchased summer home and property in 1919 but did not stay at the home until 1930 due to extensive renovations.
- Chadds Ford, PA- worked- (1906-1945)
Additional resource that could be scanned or reviewed for things to add to object files- Mayer Library, artist file- contains exhibition and published materials, multiple magazine reviews. Some of these resources would be great to scan, but were not published by the DMA. It would be beneficial to have the artist file cross-referenced (or duplicated) in the registrar's object file.
I added the UMO tag for the photograph of Wyeth added to Piction by Jessica Pirkle, summer 2016. I am removing the tag %pictionJP from this note (11/17/2016).
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