N. C. Wyeth

N.C. Wyeth
N.C. Wyeth ca. 1920
Birth name	Newell Convers Wyeth
Born	October 22, 1882 Needham, Massachusetts, United States
Died	October 19, 1945 Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, United States
Nationality	American
Famous works	Treasure Island, Robinson Crusoe
Influenced by	Howard Pyle

Newell Convers Wyeth (October 22, 1882 – October 19, 1945), known as N.C. Wyeth, was an American artist and illustrator. He was the star pupil of Howard Pyle's art school in Wilmington, Delaware and went on to become one of America's greatest illustrators. During the "golden age of illustration" he created nearly 4,000 works over a period from 1903 to 1945.

In 1911 he gained national recognition with his illustrations for the book Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and is probably best remembered for his illustrations of other children's classics done for Scribner's.

Wyeth brought to life American stories and themes, from carpetbaggers to Indians. His brilliant use of color and romantic imagery combined with his close attention to historical detail gives his artwork a lasting place in the lexicon of American illustration.

He was the father and founder of an artistic dynasty that includes son Andrew and grandson Jamie.

His love for America - its individuality and its landscapes - is clearly evident in his works from the Old West to the "Brandywine Hill" country of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. His bold and sometimes massive artwork is said to express his "largeness of spirit"; one biographer said of Wyeth, "he painted murals on a heroic scale."

Biography

Wyeth in his studio, 1903 or 1904

Newell Convers Wyeth was born in Needham, Massachusetts on October 22, 1882. His grandparents were Swiss immigrants and N.C., himself grew up surrounded by immigrant values and customs. His mother, Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth encouraged his artistic talent - and rather than send him off to work as a farmhand one summer sent him to art school; conversely, his father Andrew Newell Wyeth II called an artist's life "shiftless, almost criminal." Ironically, while his maternal grandmother never overcame her homesickness or attachment to the "old country" Wyeth remarked to his mother, that he wanted to paint "true, solid American subjects–with nothing foreign about them."

In 1902 Wyeth left Needham to attend the Howard Pyle School of Art in Wilmington, Delaware. There he was to meet his future wife, Carolyn Bockius whose family lived three blocks from the Pyle Studios on Gilpin Avenue. According to Wyeth's biographer, "by all accounts she was the prettiest girl in Wilmington."

N. C. Wyeth and Carolyn B. Bockius wre married in April 1906, and drawn to the pastoral settings and historical ambience of the "Brandywine River Valley," moved to Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania in 1908.

His early trips to the western United States inspired a period which produced illustrations of cowboys and Native Americans that dramatized the Old West. Wyeth was not only inspired by his own travels but by that renowned artist of the American West, Frederic Remington, whom he admired as a child.

Wyeth's pictures of Native Americans from this period show their unique and solitary relationship to nature. One of his most popular was of a woodland Indian, titled, The Moose Call, painted in 1904. Pictures from the "Indian in His Solitude Series" were printed in a 1907 issue of Outing magazine.

Like American illustrator Norman Rockwell, Wyeth found early success producing illustrations for The Saturday Evening Post. A bucking bronco done for the cover of the February 21st 1903 magazine was Wyeth's first commission as an illustrator. He also gained national recognition for his illustrations for Scribner's Classic Children's Books including special editions of The Yearling (by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings), Robinson Crusoe (by Daniel Defoe), The Last of the Mohicans (by James Fenimore Cooper), Kidnapped (by Robert Louis Stevenson) and Robin Hood (by Paul Creswick).

Wyeth's oeuvre also contains religious paintings. In 1923 he was commissioned by the Unitarian Layman's League to do a series of paintings titled, "The Parables of Jesus." However, his most magnificent religious work is considered his triptych (consisting of three hinged panels) painted for the chapel of the Holy Spirit at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C.. Jesus, surrounded by a host of heavenly angels, seems to be welcoming his believers; "Come Unto Me, All Ye That Labor and Are Heavy Laden, and I will Give You Rest."

N.C. Wyeth's life and career were tragically cut short when he and his grandson (Nathaniel C. Wyeth's son) were killed in a car accident at a railway crossing near his Chadds Ford home in 1945.

The Hostage by N.C. Wyeth, 1911, for Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Philosophy

Wyeth's mentor and teacher, Howard Pyle was a proponent of the idea of "mental projection." He would instruct his students, "you must live in the picture." Later, expounding on this idea with his own students, Wyeth would admonish, "don't just paint a sleeve, become the arm!", He used his own self as a model because he felt that growing up on a farm gave him a sense of bodily action - how the body looks and how it moves. Through the sheer power of his imagination he put himself into the scenes of his stories whether it be Sherwood Forest (Robin Hood) or King Arthur's Court.

Wyeth once reflected on his sustained interest in art as a youth, "I was quiet and my mother said I was observant, but I saw things as they were, and not as the fairy tales paint them.." Wyeth was a realist painter just as the camera and photography began to compete with his craft. Sometimes seen as melodramatic, his illustrations were designed to be understood quickly. Wyeth who was both a painter and an illustrator, commented once on the perpetual debate about whether illustration is "true" art, saying simply, "...you've got to be an artist before you can be an illustrator."

Legacy

Robin Hood

As head of the Wyeth family of painters who live and work in picturesque Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, his life is "larger than his accomplishments."

He is father of artist Andrew Wyeth, Henriette Wyeth Hurd, Carolyn Wyeth, Ann Wyeth McCoy, and Nathaniel C. Wyeth. Andrew, Henriette, and Carolyn became artists as well. Ann became an artist and composer. Nathaniel became an engineer for DuPont. Henriette and Ann married two of N.C.'s proteges, Peter Hurd and John W. McCoy. N.C. Wyeth is the grandfather of artist Jamie Wyeth and musician Howard Wyeth.

One of largest single murals in the United States, painted in 1932, is Apotheosis of the Family, which contains likenesses of Wyeth's own family members. It is 19 feet high by 60 feet long and mounted in five sections it spans the entire south wall of the Wilmington Savings Fund Society Building in Wilmington, Delaware.

In a 2002 episode of the TV show Antiques Roadshow, a Wyeth painting in excellent condition, believed to be titled When He Comes He Shall Rule the World, was appraised to be worth as much as $250,000. The painting was done to illustrate a story in Harper's Monthly magazine called The Lost Boy, by Henry van Dyke.

Significant public collections of Wyeth's work are on display at the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford and the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine.

Other works

• Mowing (1907)
• Long John Silver and Hawkins (1911)
• The Fence Builders (1915)
• September Afternoon (1918)
• Dying Winter (1934)
• The Alchemist (1938)
• Deep Cover Lobsterman (1939)
• The War Letter (1944)
• Nightfall (1945)

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Allen, Douglas and Allen, Douglas, Jr. N.C. Wyeth: The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals, (1972) ISBN 0517183358
• Michaelis, David. N.C. Wyeth: A Biography Alfred A. Knopf (1999) ISBN 0679426264
• Wyeth, N. C., and Betsy James Wyeth. 1971. The Wyeths; The Letters of N.C. Wyeth, 1901-1945. Boston: Gambit ISBN 087645046X
• Wyeth, N. C., Andrew Wyeth, Jamie Wyeth, and James H. Duff. 1987. An American Vision: Three Generations of Wyeth Art : N.C. Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth, James Wyeth. Boston: Little, Brown. ISBN 082121652X

External links

N. C. Wyeth Portal

N. C. Wyeth Portal

• N.C. Wyeth House and Studio, Brandywine River Museum, Retrieved May 21, 2007.
• N. C. Wyeth Art Collections, Artpassions.net. Retrieved May 21, 2007.
• Vadeboncoeur, Jr., Jim. 2000. N.C. Wyeth, BPIB.com, Retrieved May 21, 2007.
• "Bronco Buster", Artsmia.org, Retrieved May 21, 2007.
• "Lesson Plan for grades 9-12: N.C. Wyeth: The Art of Illustration", ArtsEdge, Retrieved May 21, 2007.

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