N.C. Wyeth: Fine Artist

"Island Funeral" by N.C. Wyeth

"Andy Wyeth was now the family's undisputed star. Henriette had recently had her first solo show in New York. Carolyn had gone on edging out the Pyles for prizes in Wilmington, and Ann was composing for main line orchestras. As 'the daddy of them all,' N.C. was asked, 'Aren't you proud of it all?' Tossing his head, he would answer with a laugh. 'Of course I am!' The unfolding of all the younger members of the family is a glorious episode of my life.' For himself though, he still maintained a 'clear vision of what lies ahead before a real mark is achieved.'

On December 4, 1939, the whole family, except Nat and Caroline and Peter Hurd, returned to Macbeth's gallery for what N.C. termed 'my first appearance in N.Y. as a painter of something other than illustrations.' At the gallery the family gathered for a press portrait. Andy was late - without telling anyone he had been shopping for an engagement ring, but they made a crowded, Sunday-best picture for 'Newsweek.' On the wall behind them, 'Island Funeral' hung in the dominant spot opposite the door. 

Peter Hurd had written the introduction for the exhibition catalog, announcing the twelve oil and tempera landscapes and seascapes as the moment of N.C. Wyeth's liberation from the art of illustration. Some 300 guests appeared, jamming the room all afternoon. The author of 'Howard Pyle,' Marjorie Rawlings, presented her collaborator with a 'huge and violent bouquet with every known flower it.' Blushing furiously, N.C. was surprised that the world could be this good to him. He was on the point of tears. Ann Wyeth later remembered it as a characteristic moment for her father.

Two paintings sold. 'Fox in the Snow' went for $750.  But on the sale of 'Sun Glint,' N.C. sacrificed $300 so that an impecunious buyer could afford to buy an Andrew Wyeth watercolor at the same time. All told he had posted expenses of $1,390.53 and gallery commissions of $337.50, for a loss of $528.14. Within hours of returning to Chadds Ford, the 'inevitable reaction set in and I've felt pretty low ever since,' he told a friend. He knew he 'ought to be encouraged and reasonably happy,' but he only felt frustrated now that he could see 'with cruelly clear eyes' how short he had fallen, and 'how little time there seems to be left in which to make up the distance.'

Soon afterwards a telegram from the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., announced that N.C.'s 'In a Dream I Meet General Washington' had won a fourth prize, accompanied by $500 and a Corcoran Honorable Mention certificate. He had won prizes before, first prizes and gold medals, but always as an illustrator. Each time he had shrugged them off. To be honored as a painter, even in fourth place, was something else again. He had spent that morning in a wash of tears of happiness."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "N.C. Wyeth" by David Michaelis.)