Andrew Wyeth, American Painter, Dies

Last night America lost one of its most beloved artists---Andrew Wyeth. He died Thursday evening, January 15, 2009 at the age of 91 at his birthplace, Chadd's Ford, Pennsylvania. I thought of Wyeth a little after noon today, before I heard of his death, as I passed the Brandywine River Museum in Chadd's Ford on my way home from the Philadelphia International Airport. I have visited the museum several times to see his work. The museum houses numerous paintings of Andrew Wyeth, his father N.C. Wyeth, who was a well known book illustrator, and Jamie Wyeth, his son. Wyeth has been a favorite realist artist ever since I saw his most famous painting "Christina's World" in one of my art history classes in 1968.

"Christina's World" (1948) is a painting of Christina Olson, a neighbor whose deteriorating muscles paralyzed her lower body. It resides in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Strangely enough, Christina was not Wyeth's model for the painting, but rather his wife Betsy. It is one of the most recognizable pieces of American art.

As one who has always been drawn to realist art Andrew Wyeth's egg tempera and water color paintings fascinated me. This was not the case with many art critics who were enamored by abstract painting and pop art. For some Wyeth was simply another illustrator.

For me his realism was at times photographic and his colors and textures seemed to capture the look, feel, and age of the Pennsylvania landscape, as well as that of his other residence in Cushing, Maine. I loved his paintings of people, barns, stone houses, snowy landscapes, and common objects that all had the distinctive Wyeth signature in their color, drybrush texture, and sparing composition. And yet, his art was more than copying reality. He was able to create a sense of mystery, wonder, solitude, and deep feeling in his paintings.

I remember the publicity, and scandal, surrounding the unveiling of his series of Helga pictures (247) that came to public attention in 1986, but which were painted over a 15 year period. Part of the controversy was that these intimate paintings and drawings, many of which were nude figures, were even unknown to Wyeth's wife and Helga's husband.

In death his paintings will live on for many generations to come in the tangible expressions of his heart, soul, and creative spirit.

Miss Potter: A Woman Ahead of Her Time

I finally rented the movie Miss Potter the other day. I was interested in the movie because Beatrix Potter was an artist, an independent woman in the Victorian age, and a conservationist. She was a woman ahead of her time.

Beatrix is best known as the author and illustrator of such children's classics as The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Her life straddled the 19th and 20th centuries. Born to a privileged family Beatrix she was raised by governesses and spent holidays in the Lake District in England, to which she would return to live in later life. Hers was lonely childhood spending time with her many animals, exploring the landscape, and drawing animals, flora and fauna from a very early age.

The movie presented Beatrix's mutton-chop-sideburned father, Rupert, as appreciative and encouraging of her artwork. In contrast her sour-faced mother, Helen, never really appreciated her art, even after she became well known for her books. She discouraged her daughter from getting an education. Her uncle tried to get her into the Royal Botanical Gardens as a student, but was rejected because of her gender. Later she became respected as a mycologist for her numerous drawings of lichen and fungi.

Beginning with The Tale of Peter Rabbit Beatrix wrote and illustrated 23 books, which have become the largest selling children's books in the world. Beatrix, a single woman, became independently wealthy. The movie focuses upon her relationship with her book publisher, Norman Warne. Her parents were dead set against her marriage. Norman died before they were able to marry.

Beatrix purchased a farm in the Lake District and lived there on her own. She began purchasing surrounding farms through her solicitor William Heelis in order to preserve the land from developers. They ended up getting married and she ended up with with 14 farms. After her death in 1943 all the land was donated to the British National Trust.

Here was a woman who kept drawing in spite of discouragements, was able to live independently, publish her works, was not boxed in by traditional women's roles, became knowledgeable through self-study and observation, used her wealth to preserve land, and lived a full and rich life. Beatrix Potter was a woman ahead of her time.