Newell Convers Wyeth (1882-1945)

Newell Convers Wyeth, known as N. C. Wyeth, was an American painter and illustrator.

He was a student of Howard Pyle and became one of America's most well-known illustrators.

Wyeth created more than 3,000 paintings and illustrated 112 books - 25 of them for Scribner's, the Scribner Classics, which is the body of work for which he is best known.

The first of these, Treasure Island, was one of his masterpieces and the proceeds paid for his studio.

Wyeth was a realist painter at a time when the camera and photography began to compete with his craft.

Sometimes seen as melodramatic, his illustrations were designed to be understood quickly.

Wyeth, who was both a painter and an illustrator, understood the difference, and said in 1908, "Painting and illustration cannot be mixed-one cannot merge from one into the other".

He is the father of Andrew Wyeth and the grandfather of Jamie Wyeth, both also well-known American painters.

Legacy

In June 1945, he had received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from Bowdoin College.

Wyeth was a member of the National Academy, the Society of Illustrators, the Philadelphia Water Color Club, the Fellowship of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Philadelphia Art Alliance, the Chester County Art Association, and the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts.

In October 1945, Wyeth and his grandson (Nathaniel's son, whose name was also Newell) were killed when the automobile they were riding in was struck by a southbound Octoraro Branch freight train at a railway crossing over Ring Road near his Chadds Ford home.

His vehicle was carried 143 feet down the line and flipped several times before coming to a stop.

At the time, Wyeth had been working on an ambitious series of murals for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company depicting the Pilgrims at Plymouth, a series completed by Andrew Wyeth and John McCoy.

Significant public collections of Wyeth's work are on display at the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, in Maine at the Portland Museum of Art, and at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine.

The Brandywine River Museum offers tours of the N. C. Wyeth House and Studio in Chadds Ford. His home and studio were designated a National Historic Landmark in 1997, and are open to the public.

His studio is set up just as he left it - the palette he used on the day of his death sits by his last canvas. | Source: © Wikipedia

Newell Convers Wyeth (1882-1945), noto come N. C. Wyeth, è stato un pittore ed illustratore Americano.

Fu allievo di Howard Pyle e divenne uno degli illustratori Americani più famosi.

Wyeth ha creato più di 3.000 dipinti ed illustrato 112 libri, 25 dei quali per Scribner's, gli Scribner Classics, che è il corpus di opere per cui è meglio conosciuto.

Il primo di questi, L'Isola del Tesoro, fu uno dei suoi capolavori ed il ricavato pagò per il suo studio.

Wyeth era un pittore realista in un'epoca in cui la macchina fotografica e la fotografia cominciavano a competere con la sua arte.

A volte viste come melodrammatiche, le sue illustrazioni erano progettate per essere comprese rapidamente.

Wyeth, che era sia pittore che illustratore, capì la differenza e nel 1908 disse: "La pittura e l'illustrazione non possono essere mescolate: non è possibile fondersi l'una con l'altra".