N. C. Wyeth

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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. Born in Needham, Massachusetts, he was the star pupil of Howard Pyle and became one of America's greatest illustrators.[1]

His first published work appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post in 1903. In 1911 he painted a series of illustrations for an edition of the book, Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson. He also illustrated editions of The Yearling, The White Company, Robinson Crusoe, The Last of the Mohicans, Kidnapped (1937), and Robin Hood. During his lifetime, Wyeth created over 3,000 paintings and illustrated 112 books,[2] 25 of them for Scribner's, the work for which he is best known.[1]

For fathering and inventing the Wyeth clan in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, his life is "larger than his accomplishments." Wyeth was a realist painter just as the camera and photography began to compete with his craft.[3] Sometimes seen as melodramatic, his illustrations were designed to be understood quickly.[4] Wyeth who was both a painter and an illustrator, understood the difference, and said in 1908, "painting and illustration cannot be mixed–one cannot merge from one into the other."[3]

Contents

[edit] Life

Wyeth in his studio, 1903 or 1904
Wyeth in his studio, 1903 or 1904

N.C. Wyeth is the father of Andrew Wyeth, Henriette Wyeth Hurd, Carolyn Wyeth, Ann Wyeth McCoy, and Nathaniel C. Wyeth. Andrew, Henriette, and Carolyn became artist as well. Ann became an artist and composer. Nathaniel became an engineer for DuPont and worked on the team that invented the plastic soda bottle. 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.[5]

A bucking bronco for the cover of The Saturday Evening Post on February 21, 1903 was Wyeth's first commission as an illustrator.[6] That year he described his work as, "true, solid American subjects–nothing foreign about them."[7] His early trips to the western United States inspired a period of images of cowboys and Native Americans that dramatized the Old West.[4]

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.

N.C. Wyeth died in an accident at a railway crossing along with his grandson (Nathaniel C. Wyeth's son) near his Chadds Ford home in 1945.

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

[edit] Other works

  • Mowing (1907)
  • Long John Silver and Hawkins (1911)
  • The Fence Builders (1915)
  • Apotheosis of the Family (1932):[8] a 60-foot-by-19-foot mural including likenesses of members of the Wyeth family, located in a building in downtown Wilmington, Delaware[9]
  • Dying Winter (1934)
  • The Alchemist (1938)
  • Deep Cover Lobsterman (1939)
  • The War Letter (1944)
  • Nightfall (1945)
  • Stand and Deliver (19??) [9]

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b ARTSEDGE, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (undated). N.C. Wyeth: A Short Biography. Retrieved on February 21, 2007.
  2. ^ Adams, Henry (June 2006). Wyeth's World. Smithsonian. Retrieved on February 21, 2007.
  3. ^ a b Gopnik, Adam (November 15, 1998). "Pictures Great," His Publisher Told Him, review of N. C. Wyeth by David Michaelis. New York Times. Retrieved on February 18, 2007.
  4. ^ a b barewalls.com (1996-2005). Newell Convers Wyeth. Retrieved on February 21, 2007.
  5. ^ Fisk, Dean (August 5, 1998). FISKE-L: Re-Nicholas Wyeth / John Fiske & Sara Wyeth. Retrieved on February 19, 2007.
  6. ^ Gerson, Donna, Michelle Frisque, Beth Kean, and Elizabeth T. Mahoney (undated). Elizabeth Nesbitt Room Illustrators Project: Newell Convers Wyeth (1882-1945). University of Pittsburgh. Retrieved on February 21, 2007.
  7. ^ American Art Archives (undated). N C Wyeth / Newell Convers Wyeth. Retrieved on February 21, 2007.
  8. ^ Milford, Maureen. "WSFS building fills void in city's center", Delaware News-Journal, 7 January 2007. Retrieved on January 7, 2007.
  9. ^ a b Milford, Maureen. "Wanted: New home for Wyeth painting", Delaware News-Journal, 25 January 2007. Retrieved on January 26, 2007.

[edit] External links

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