N.C. Wyeth: Mural Painting

"The Battle of Wilson's Creek" at the Missouri State Capitol

"N.C. Wyeth's painting hand had always craved size. He usually made his illustrations about as large as was feasible for reduction down to the small dimensions of the book or magazine page but still he sometimes felt cramped. Some of his colleagues like George Harding and Stanley Arthurs were working on mural decorations and the challenge of those large spaces excited him. He seized the opportunity to paint a long panel of an Indian hunt for a hotel in Utica, New York. With this experience behind him he moved on to larger projects. One of the most important and successful was the commission to paint two large lunettes for the Missouri State Capitol. These were Civil War subjects and one, which proved most popular, was a handsome battle piece of the fight at Wilson's Creek, painted in soft, vibrant hues of blue, green and muted golden pinks.

As his reputation as a muralist spread and as new commissions came in, even the impressive studio on the hill proved insufficient. He built a long addition to it, separated from the old studio by great doors and accessible by going down a flight of wide steps. It had the advantage of great height and was equipped with ladders, scaffolds and a movable platform. Even his craving for size was satisfied. Climbing ladders and reaching from scaffolds took care of his ambitious muscles. 

Two large commissions came from Boston, one for a set of five upright panels on the theme of maritime commerce for the First National Bank of that city and two decorations for the Federal Reserve Bank. A succession of orders followed: five panels in the new Hubbard Memorial Building of the National Geographic Society in Washington, a large mural in the Federal Savings Bank in New York City, panels in the Metropolitan Life Insurance Building, New York, the Wilmington Savings Society and the First Mechanics National Bank of Trenton, New Jersey, and a triptych for the Chapel of the Holy Spirit in the National Cathedral in Washington.

He usually rose at dawn and fortified himself with two or three grapefruit halves, a huge pile of hot cakes and four or five eggs. Then up the hill to the studio in the morning light, he would face last night's canvas in the merciless brightness of the new day or prepare to attack a new one on the easel. Often he would put a Beethoven or Sibelius record on the Victrola to get himself off to a good start. After a long day's work at the easel, he would come down the darkening path to the house, stretching his arms saying, 'I wish the day was just starting.'"

To be continued

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