Musée No:583.026
Regular price £15.00Christmas Tree – Chadds Ford
Artist: N. C. Wyeth
Date:1922
Newell Convers Wyeth, (1882-1945) was an American artist and illustrator. He became one of America's greatest illustrators. During his career, Wyeth created more than 3,000 paintings and illustrated 112 books including Kidnapped (1913), Robin Hood (1917), The Last of the Mohicans (1919), Robinson Crusoe (1920. The proceeds of his work on Treasure Island (1911) paid for his studio.
He described his work as "true, solid American subjects—nothing foreign about them", for example a bucking bronco for the cover of The Saturday Evening Post in 1903. The next year they commissioned him to illustrate a Western story, whilst in Colorado he worked as a cowboy. He visited the Navajo and gained an understanding of Native American culture. He wrote home, "The life is wonderful, strange—the fascination of it clutches me like some unseen animal—it seems to whisper, 'Come back, you belong here, this is your real home.'" His early trips inspired images of cowboys and Native Americans that dramatized the Old West.
He worked for magazines like Harper's Monthly, Scribner's, etc. He also produced posters, calendars, and adverts for clients such as Lucky Strike and Coca-Cola. He painted historical murals for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, the National Geographic Society and other public and private buildings.
In October 1945, Wyeth and his grandson were killed when the car they were in was hit by a freight train at a railway crossing.
