Wyeth watercolors
Magazine Antiques, June, 2005 by Allison Eckardt Ledes
Watercolor is one of the most demanding and unforgiving artistic mediums. Mistakes cannot be rectified, pools of colors can merge before they are dry, underdrawing is difficult to obliterate, and washes laid on top of one another can create a murky effect. Even in the hands of a master of the medium like Winslow Homer, one can readily see the changes he made en route to the final composition. Homer has been a hero to Andrew Wyeth since his artist-father, N. C. Wyeth, suggested that Andrew study with his friend the watercolor painter Sidney Marsh Chase, which he did. Favorably compared to Homer in a review of his first one-man show at Macbeth Gallery in New York City in October 1937, Wyeth credited Homer with leading him "on to something else. I got a direction that was authentic to me and to what I felt."
An exhibition of the early watercolors of Andrew Wyeth is on view at the Farnsworth Art Museum and Wyeth Center in Rockland, Maine, until September 18. The show was organized by Susan E. Strickler, director of the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, New Hampshire, where it was earlier on view. She is also the author of the accompanying catalogue. The fifty-four works in Andrew Wyeth: Early Watercolors date from the late 1930s, 1940s, and early 1950s and include two works in tempera. In 1951 the Currier and Farnsworth museums collaborated on an exhibition of Wyeth's work, which was the first museum retrospective of his career. Today, Wyeth is primarily associated with and famous for his work in tempera. Because watercolors cannot remain on view for long periods and because so many of the works in this exhibition are in the collection of the artist and his wife, many of them have never been shown publicly and thus provide a revealing insight into this artist's early career. The show is divided into two sections: works painted near Port Clyde, Maine, where Wyeth has summered since his youth, and works painted in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, where he spends the remainder of the year.
The earliest watercolors are characterized by bold colors and spontaneous brushstrokes. In the late 1940s Wyeth began to use a technique he calls dry brush, which involves loading the color onto the brush and then squeezing out most of the water. This enables him to paint in greater detail. The later works represent his shift to a more muted palette and a range of colors usually associated with his temperas. Wyeth has said that watercolor represents his wild side and tempera his disciplined side.
The catalogue of this exhibition may be obtained by telephoning 207-596-5789.
COPYRIGHT 2005 Brant Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group
Bibliography for "Wyeth watercolors"
Allison Eckardt Ledes "Wyeth watercolors". Magazine Antiques. June 2005. FindArticles.com. 23 Sep. 2006.
Top of Page