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Wyeth Family Tradition: Wonderous Strange II

© Jennifer Hollowell

There's so many interesting tid-bit's on the Internet and in publications I couldn't possibly place it all into one article. What an adventure it's been learning about this family and those who inspired them. I'm continuing this series of articles with more about N. C. Wyeth, himself. In the weeks to come, focus will be placed upon his children and so on.

N. C.'s mother came from a strong cultural background and encouraged his artistic interests and talents from the beginning. His father objected to this passion primarily due to his son's falling grades and growing disinterest in public schooling. Despite these objections and concerns, N. C.'s mother remained persistent to her goal of supporting her son's abilities. She sent him to several schools:

 Mechanic's Art School in Boston where he studied drafting and graduated in 1899, though this didn't hold his interest as a career.
 Massachusetts National Art School where he was encouraged to pursue illustration by his, now supportive, father who funded the whole thing.
 Eric Pape School of Art in Boston
 Annisquam, Massachusetts with George L. Noyes in 1901

By 1902, he was studying with Charles W. Reed and then on to Wilmington, Delaware to study with Howard Pyle. Pyle's teachings had a dramatic, immediate and long-lasting influence on N. C.'s creations. After only a few months of study with Pyle, also referred to as the "Father of American Illustration," N. C. saw his first published piece. In later years, N. C. recalls his first meeting with Pyle during a conversation with his son, Andrew:

"The soft top-light from the glass roof high above us poured down like a magical and illuminated mist over his magnificent head . . . the entire continence became majestically severe, forceful, unrelenting. The recollection of the masks of Beethoven, Washington, Goethe, Keats, passed in swift succession before my vision, and in a sudden gasp of the truth I realized that the artist's face before me was actually a living compromise [sic] of the men of history and romance which he had so magically and dramatically perpetuated on canvas." (N. C. Wyeth is quoted by Pitz in The Brandywine Tradition, pp. 127-28)

He spoke to his mother of his interests in 1903:

"I know I will paint something that will tell someday. Just give me time. I've finally decided what I will do. Not altogether Western life, but true, solid American subjects - nothing foreign about them." (Quoted from Letters, p. 41)