N. C. Wyeth, a student of the illustrator, Howard Pyle, was a great American illustrator whose vision of Robin Hood, Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island, The Last of the Mohicans, and other classics has resonated in the minds of generations of Americans. Despite his immense success, N. C. Wyeth believed he was a failure as an artist-never seeing himself as the serious painter that his son Andrew and grandson Jamie were later proclaimed to be.

Instead, N. C. Wyeth found in fatherhood his most satisfying achievement. Although his own childhood was anything but idyllic-and we see how his mother's instability and his father's rigidity set the stage for his profoundly divided personality-N.C. Wyeth made an enchanting world for his children. He held them enthralled through their adult lives. He shepherded his daughter Ann's career as a composer, and taught his daughters Henriette and Caroline, and his son Andrew to paint. N. C. was Andrew's only teacher.

On the morning of October 19, 1945, N. C. Wyeth stopped by and picked up his grandson, in his Ford station wagon, and they were riding on Ring Road in Chadds Ford when a three-ton steam engine collided with the station wagon. The station wagon stalled on the railroad tracks. Wyeth and his grandson were unable to get out in time and both were killed.

1917 -

Andrew Wyeth has become as much a celebrity as Henry Fonda (who admired and imitated his work) For most of us, his stardom has cannibalized his art to a degree unprecedented by any other artist with pretensions to seriousness. Wyeth's prices have been engineered to extraordinary heights. Reproductions have saturated our tolerance but not the market. Every aspect of his life has been endlessly celebrated and whatever he has to say has been written down and turned into best sellers. Perhaps this is nothing more than the media testing his commercial viability, as they do with every successful artist.

Andrew Wyeth spent the whole summer of 1948 on the 32 1/2 X 48 inch egg tempra painting of "Christina's World". He had the idea for the painting in May while looking out of a window in the Olson house. He saw Christina dragging herself across the grass. Christina had a never diagnosed muscular deterioration that left her lower body paralized. She usually dragged herself to pick flowers from her tiny garden to decorate the house. Andrew Wyeth's sketch for "Christina's World."

In1987, the National Gallery of Art exhibited the Helga paintings. This was the first time the National Gallery had ever featured the work of a living artist. (I attended that exhibit and it was an experience I'll never forget. -Fred)

Jamie Wyeth

1946 -

Jamie Wyeth, the third generation in a renowned family of American artists, developed his own distinctive style at a precociously early age. A sensitive observer of people, animals and the Maine land and seascapes that surround him, Wyeth achieves a heightened, almost dreamlike realism with vivid, saturated hues and dramatic effects of light. His work is found in the National Gallery of Art, the Museum of Modern Art and numerous other public and private collections.

Jamie spent the greater part of his childhood painting, learning from his grandfather N.C. Wyeth, his father, Andrew Wyeth, and his aunt, Carolyn Wyeth. His precocious talent and focus led to his first solo show at age 20. By age 30, Wyeth's paintings had joined numerous public and private collections. In recent years, Wyeth has spent most of his time painting in Maine, where he lives in a restored island lighthouse.

"Everybody in my family paints - excluding possibly the dogs," says Jamie Wyeth.

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To learn more about this family of artists, do a Google search on each N. C. Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth and Jamie Wyeth. A search for Chadds Ford, PA also returns some good results. This amazing family of artists should produce some interesting discussions on our message board!