Treasure Hunting for Wyeths

Michelle Murdock, Curator of Exhibitions and Chris Rossi, Associate Curator of Exhibitions

Ideas for upcoming exhibits occur in all sorts of ways. Some stick and get developed and others fall by the wayside. Right now, we have some exciting future prospects being developed for the coming years. Among our favorite possibilities is one centering on the Wyeths, and we are finding ourselves being swept up into their powerful family current.

Most of us are familiar with the works of N.C. Wyeth, his son Andrew and grandson Jamie. What we didn’t realize was that N.C.’s daughters, Henriette and Carolyn, also painted. Some of the other children who didn’t paint married painters. The family was one big art enclave with more talent than you could shake a stick at and with the kind of intriguing stories that go along with fame and talent.

NC Wyeth, ca. 1920

Charles Scribner and Sons art reference department records

The Wyeth Family, 1922

N.C. Wyeth, A Biography, by David Michaelis, Knopf, 1998

So how were we to find out more? We decided it was time to make a pilgrimage to the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, the site of N.C. Wyeth’s home and studio. In the Pennsylvania countryside N.C. found the inspiration and setting he was looking for to hone his illustration and painting. In 1911 he wrote “I’m totally satisfied that this is a little corner of the world wherein I shall work out my destiny.”

Brandywine River Museum, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania

Much of N.C.’s work is known to many through his book illustrations. In person, though, the canvasses sing the way a reproduction barely hints at. Carolyn and Henriette’s works were new to us and enlarged our understanding of the family talent. Jamie and Andrew’s work confirmed our appreciation of their art.

“One More Step Mr. Hands”

N.C. Wyeth Illustration for Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Charles Scribner and Sons art reference department records

Then, while on vacation in Maine, Michelle visited the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland. They were featuring an N.C. exhibition, Poems of American Patriotism, and a 3-generation exhibition called The Wyeths’ Wyeths. The Wyeth Study Center at the Farnsworth houses Andrew Wyeth’s works inspired by the Maine coast spanning his career from early childhood drawings to works completed shortly before his death in 2009. The Farnsworth also operates The Olson House, the subject of Andrew Wyeth’s famous painting, Christina’s World, housed at the Museum of Modern Art.

Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine

Christina's World, 1948

By Andrew Wyeth (American, 1917-2009) Tempera on gessoed panel, 32 1/4 x 47 3/4" (81.9 x 121.3 cm)

Museum of Modern Art Purchase, 16.1949

Finally, we both recently visited The Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, New York, to take in their current exhibition, Andrew Wyeth: An American Legend, which they organized with the Farnsworth.

The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, New York

What’s next? A bit more research, perhaps some more road-trips, and hopefully a sublime exhibit to share with our visitors in the upcoming years.

What Lies Below the Surface? Part III

By Doug Kendall, Curator of Collections

When great landscape painters of 19^th-century America are discussed, one will certainly hear the names of Thomas Cole and Asher Durand, both of whom are represented in the collections of the Fenimore Art Museum. Frederic Church, George Inness, Thomas Doughty and Albert Bierstadt would probably make the list as well.

These painters not only created a popular vision of the American landscape, they also inspired countless Americans to take up pencil and sketchbook, palette and canvas, and record the scenery of their own regions. Though neither famous nor in most cases professional, many of these artists did possess some artistic skill and talent.

In western New York, William Martin Beauchamp (1830-1925) and John Calvin Perry (1837-1894) were two such artists. Beauchamp’s father was an English printer who emigrated to Skaneateles and ran local newspapers and a printing office. William sketched landscapes of the Skaneateles Lake area from an early age; he became an Episcopal priest and an amateur archaeologist and continued creating sketches and watercolors throughout his life as an avocation.

Glenhaven, Head of Skaneateles Lake, 1851. By William Martin Beauchamp. Oil on canvas.

Bequest of Nina Fletcher Little, N0183.1993.

John Calvin Perry lived his entire life in the hamlet of Delphi Falls, 30 miles or so from Skaneateles. He painted portraits, but also farmed to support his family. At times he taught art at the Cazenovia Seminary and in other nearby communities. He painted landscapes for his own pleasure and many of these remained with his descendants.

Wheat Harvest, date unknown. By John Calvin Perry. Oil on canvas.

Gift of Clayton Smith, N0121.1992. Photo: Lesley Poling.

Artists like Beauchamp and Perry could not earn their living as artists, but they are representative of an artistic culture that developed in 19^th-century New York. Their works, which never became iconic representations of the American landscape as did those of Cole and Church, nevertheless have great historical value in documenting the common landscape of upstate New York.