ANDREW WYETH watercolours: Maine

from an exhibition at the Brandywine Museum of Art, Chadds Ford, PA  on the watercolour studies of Andrew Wyeth in Maine

 

 

Andrew Wyeth met his wife, Betsy, in Cushing, Maine, when she was 17 and he 22. 1939.  A year later, they were married and began to live in Chadds Ford in the Brandywine Valley, Pennsylvania, his natal area.

 

Before they married, Betsy Wyeth introduced her husband to Christina Olson and her brother, Alvaro. They lived in Cushing.

 

Deeply admiring of the tenacity and spirit of the disabled Christina, Wyeth made several portraits of her, of her brother and of their house.

  

This portrait is probably Wyeth’s most famous single painting and certainly the most famous of his Maine paintings.  Christina never wanted to use a wheelchair.  Here she is dragging herself up to her house.

The pink dress and limbs are those of the 55-year old Christina Olson.  The model for this painting was, however, the artist’s wife.

 

 

 

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 Christina’s World, 1948, tempera on panel.

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American. MOMA, NY

 

 

 

Over the years, Betsy bought 3 islands in Knox County, Maine: Southern, Allen and Benner.  The family spent autumn and winter in Chadds Ford and much of the spring and all of summer in Maine.

 

 

Coastal Maine

 

 

 

These are (primarily) watercolours made by Andrew Wyeth as studies of his time in Maine. They form part of the legacy of 7000 paintings and drawings left by the artist and his wife for exhibition and study.

 

The colour palette here, markedly different from rural Pennsylvania, reflects the famous light of Maine: the blue of the sea and sky, the white of buildings and the green of the state’s evergreens.

 

The artist used watercolour for studies and egg tempera for final work.

 

 

 

Fisherman’s Houses, 1937, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American

 

 

 

 

Untitled, 1940, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American

 

 

 

 

Untitled, 1940, watercolour

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American

 

 

 

Front Door Study, 1944, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American

 

 

 

 

The Captain’s Coat, 1948, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American

 

 

 

 

House on Teel’s Island, 1945, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American

 

 

 

 

Untitled, 1953, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American

 

 

 

 

Untitled, 1954, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American

 

 

 

 

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Teel’s Island, 1954, watercolour on paper with dry brush.

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American. Private collection

 

 

 

 

 

Maine Door – First Version, 1970, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American

 

 

 

 

Untitled, no date, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American

 

 

 

 

Maidenhair, 1974, egg tempera on panel

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American

Elaine Benner, who regularly modeled for Wyeth, is positioned here as a bride in The Old German Church in Waldoboro, Maine in a scene which the artist had witnessed before.

 

 

 

 

Untitled, 1979, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American

 

 

 

Untitled, 1983, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American

 

 

 

 

New Moon Study, 1985, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American

 

 

 

 

 

Hunter’s Ledge – First Version, 1988, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American

 

 

 

 

Pentecost, 1989, egg tempera and pencil on panel

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American

Fishing nets drying on Allen’s Island on Muscongus Bay

 

 

 

 

Jupiter Study, 1991, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American

 

 

 

 

Tide’s Out – Second Version, 1991, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American

 

 

 

 

Shellback Study, 2004, watercolour and pencil on paper 

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American

Wyeth seems to be imagining the tomb of his friend, Walt Anderson, in Martinsville years after the event.  The tomb is not in the earth but in a mound of blue mussel shells not unlike the Abenaki shell middens found up and down this coast.

 

 

 

 

Goodbye Study, 2008, watercolour and pencil on paper 

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American.

 

 

This sail loft was transported from the mainland to Allen’s Island by Betsy Wyeth.  It was to serve as a museum.  The tempera painting is the last which Andrew Wyeth completed.

 

 

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Goodbye, egg tempera with pencil on hardboard, 2008.

  Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American. Collection of Andrew and Betsy Wyeth on display in the summer of 2017 at the Brandywine River Museum.

 

 

Andrew Wyeth and his wife are buried in the Olson family cemetery down the hill from the Olson house. Cushing, Maine.

 

 

 

 

 

4 thoughts on “ANDREW WYETH watercolours: Maine”

  3. El Maestro ANDREW WYETH fue para mi en lo personal y para muchos actuales artistas cubanos una fuente de inspiración y estudio, de donde surgió una fuerte corriente de hiperealismo y con obras importantes que abundan en el Museo Nacional de Arte, La Habana.
    Mi pieza “…con permiso Sr. Wyeth” se apropia de la figura de Cristina de una de su más importante pintura “El mundo de Cristina”. En mi pintura al acrílico sobre lienzo “Cristina yace en un paisaje más contemporáneo e incierto.
    Gracias al artista Andrew Wyeth por su legado, maestría y virtuosismo.

    1. Thank you for your interesting comment. It goes without saying that it is difficult for us to see Cuban art. I am glad you have found inspiration in Andrew Wyeth’s ‘Cristina’; and that you are continuing in realistic mode.

      I hope you have seen the post I posted for his 100th birthday:
      ANDREW WYETH (reposted on the occasion of Betsy Wyeth’s death).

      Best wishes.

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