Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009), was one of the foremost realist artists in the second half of the North American 20th century.

 

Among the bequests left by him and his wife, Betsy, are 7000 preparatory paintings and sketches by the artist now in the guardianship of the Wyeth Foundation for American Art. 

 

The Brandywine Museum of Art in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania and the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine house half each of this collection;

 

all to be made available for exhibition, loan and study. 

 

The artist was born, raised and lived a great part of his adult life in Chadds Ford 30 miles from Philadelphia and on the border of Pennsylvania and Delaware.

He spent summers in Maine, his wife’s ancestral place; and the place of his own burial. 

 

The Brandywine Museum is presenting a fourth exhibition drawn from this legacy:  images – in the watercolour which his father had taught him –  of the artist’s study of the natural world of Chadds Ford.

These are preparatory studies only; most in watercolour. Wyeth’s major paintings are executed generally in tempera.

 

The artist’s work is known for exacting detail and and a neutral/dark palette which forces the eye to distinguish subjects and their relationships;

 

and elicits emotions by means of a review of these relationships and not by means of colour.

 

Nature was a primary subject and setting and symbol of the artist.

 

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People report the emergence in February of the leaves of the skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus). 

 

 

Skunk Cabbage, Fourth version, 1953, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American

 

 

The skunk cabbage is one of those plants whose biomechanics defy  understanding. 

 

as below

 

 

It is a thermogenic plant:  it is able to create temperatures around it of 15-35 C above the temperature of the air by means of complex mechanisms not totally understood. 

 

 

Skunk Cabbage, 1953, Fifth version, watercolour on paper, 1953

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American. 

 

 

It emerges through and blooms in February snow and ice.  It is also pollinated at this time by, among others, carrion-feeding insects attracted by its foul odours.

 

People report its emergence because it is the earliest of our spring harbingers.

 

The artist returned every year to his summer home in Maine when his palette of colours transforms with the advance of summer.

 

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Untitled, 1937, watercolour and ink on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American. 

 

 

A parasitic mistletoe on a live oak tree painted on a trip to North Carolina.

 

 

 

Frog Hunters, 1941, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American. 

 

 

 

Apples on a Bough, Study for Before Picking, 1942, drybrush watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American. 

 

 

 

Before Picking, 1942, drybrush watercolour

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American. 

 

 

 

After Picking, drybrush watercolour on paper, 1942

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American. 

 

 

 

Blackberry Branch, Study for Blackberry Picker, 1943,  drybrush watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American. 

 

 

 

 

Jack-in-the-Pulpit, 1943, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American. 

 

 

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Buttonwood Study for The Hunter, 1943, drybrush watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American. 

 

The artist climbed this tree – an American sycamore – to get a view of it from the top.  This is the tree in his symbolic evocation of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

 

 

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Corner of the Woods, 1954, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American. 

 

 

 

Along the Brandywine Stream, 194?, Study for Summer Freshet, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American. 

 

 

 

Winter Corn Study, 1948, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American. 

 

 

 

 

Untitled, 1953, ink on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American. 

 

 

 

Lily Pods – Second Version, 1954, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American. 

 

 

 

Osage Hedge, Study for Roasted Chestnuts, 1956, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American. 

 

 

 

Untitled, 1957, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American. 

 

 

 

Untitled, 1962, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American. 

 

 

 

Giant Jack Study, 1968, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American.

An exotic variety of the plant.  It can change its sex from one year to the next should the environmental resources be available.

 

 

Hawk Tree Study, 1973, pencil on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American. 

 

 

 

Tulip pods, 1973, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American. 

The tulip in question is the tulip poplar tree.

 

 

 

detail of Untititled, 1978, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American. 

 

 

 

Buttonwood leaf, 1981, drybrush watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American. 

 

 

 

Long Limb Study, 1998, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American.

 

 

 

Untitled, 2000,  watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American. 

 

 

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Dryad Study, 2000, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American. 

 

 

 

Dryad, 2000-2007, tempera on panel

Collection of the Wyeth Foundation for American Art

 

 

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Secret, 2008, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American.