N.C. Wyeth: Out West

"Bronco Buster" by N.C. Wyeth

"After a few months studying with Howard Pyle, N.C. Wyeth's period of trial was over. He was now a full-fledged member of the Howard Pyle School of Art and eligible to wear its gold and red button in his lapel. He released him from the ban on professional work and he could go back to painting the images that had been teasing his brain. Commissions were beginning to come in and he was able to send some money back home and save a little.

Like hundreds of other young artists Wyeth couldn't get cowboys and Indians out of his head, but he found himself making pictures of a West he had never seen. Pyle's insistence on firsthand, immersed knowledge had sunk in and Wyeth discovered he couldn't be happy until he had seen the land with his own eyes. He left for a Colorado ranch. He was an excellent horseman and was able to take part in a roundup and the hundred and one chores of cattle raising. The days in the saddle, squinting at new horizons, soaking up the life of the cowhand, filled his retentive pictorial memory with a crowd of images that he would refer to in years to come.

Most of his money was stolen, by in the end it seemed an advantage. He was forced to take employment and when he moved south to a Navajo reservation he paid his way by becoming a mail rider. This made him feel as though he was a participant in the life of the West and his future pictures would ring more true.

When he returned to Wilmington, his head was crammed with impressions, his portfolio filled with drawings. The immediate result was an article for 'Scribner's Magazine' on western sheepherding accompanied by some excellent pictures. These pictures were virile, but subtle, too. Most were painted from the warm earth-color range of the palette. He was now able to project a mood, to use the effects of outdoor light to create electrifying patterns of tone. Pyle had opened his eyes to the mystery of shadows, and his own observations had taught him the dramatic effect of stray shafts of sunlight."

If you'd like to read one of N.C. Wyeth's illustrated articles for Scribner's, here's "A Day with the Round-up": https://centerofthewest.org/2015/11/08/points-west-round-up-impression-by-nc-wyeth/

To be continued

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