N.C. Wyeth: Marriage

"Tristram and Isolde" by N.C. Wyeth

"Although N.C. Wyeth was still to work with Howard Pyle until he was told he was a graduate, he now had a rising reputation in the publishing world. He was no longer an apprentice, but a well-rounded, practicing illustrator. With a steadily increasing income, he now felt that his father should be reimbursed for the expense of his education. He wrote to him that he hoped to accomplish this during the following year and in passing he confessed a certain extravagance: 'Costumes and material. I have a chest of military costumes that is invaluable to me and is the envy of H.P. himself.'

Pyle and Wyeth had many things in common, yet their natures were divergent. Pyle's emotions worked through layers of Quaker reticence, although a sudden explosion of temper was not impossible. He was the older, of course, by almost thirty years and the grooves of creation were well worn. Wyeth was impetuous and young, impatient with preparation, inclined to the headlong attack. Pyle's was a steadying and helpful influence. The fusion of the scrupulous eye and imagination was their common gift. Wyeth needed a little more time to master this.

In one of his letters to his mother he mentions casually an event that was to bring about a major change in his life. He spoke of plans for a sleighing party and for going to church: 'I met a Miss Bockius the other day and she being a Unitarian asked me to go. I accepted with pleasure.' This casual meeting turned out to be the prelude to love, complete and final. For about a year Wyeth's letters were strangely silent on the subject of Miss Bockius, but the young pair had decided to wait until N.C.'s work had moved ahead another step and the bread-and-butter problem was solved. 

Apparently the solution came shortly after a year, for on the evening of April 16, 1906, Carolyn Bockius and Newell Convers Wyeth were married in the First Unitarian Church of Wilmington. For a short time they remained in town but they had set their heart on the country, and when they found a suitable house to rent they moved out into the Brandywine hills at Chadds Ford."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Brandywine Tradition" by Henry C. Pitz.)