One of America's most celebrated painters of the 20th century, Andrew Wyeth and his Realist canvases are among the most well-known works of American art history. His scenes of everyday life in rural Pennsylvania and Maine captured a distinctly American way of life with a nostalgia and sense of the uncanny that set him apart from other artists of his generation. The present work, Farm Horse, reveals Wyeth's modern approach, which brings together traditional Realism with a quiet and somewhat haunting drama. The combination of light and darkness contribute to the stark quietude of the scene, effectively communicating the timelessness of American rural life.
Farm Horse is representative of one of Wyeth's most inspirational places - South Cushing, Maine, where he settled for the summers with his wife in the 1840s. Attracted to the small town charm and weather-beaten farmhouses, as well as the picturesque surrounding landscapes, Wyeth used South Cushing as the backdrop for some of his most celebrated works, including Christina's World from 1948 (Metropolitan Museum of Art). Farm Horse was also painted there in 1954 on the farm of a nearby neighbor, Frank Crute. A longtime Maine farmer, Frank Crute represented one of the "salt of the earth" New Englanders to whom Wyeth was often drawn. When Mr. Crute noticed the artist sketching one of his retired horses grazing in an open field, he offered to put the mare in all her trappings for the occasion. The next morning, she posed in her well worn work harness, with brass buckles polished and gleaming, befitting the pride with which farmers like Crute took in their horses.
Born in 1917 in rural Pennsylvania, Andrew Wyeth was the youngest son of the great artist and illustrator N.C. Wyeth. He received vigorous artistic training from his father beginning at a young age, and enjoyed his first exhibition at just 16 at the Wilmington Society of Fine Arts in Delaware. Watercolor was his preferred medium, though he would later turn to egg tempera, an unusual choice for a modern American painter.
His early works caught the eye of Robert Macbeth, an important art dealer in New York, who organized Wyeth's first solo exhibition in 1937. After just two days, the show sold out, and Wyeth gained significant recognition on the New York art scene. In spite of his popularity, the artist generally remained secluded in his studio, living in Maine and Pennsylvania with his wife and two sons. Still, he remained remarkably popular throughout his lifetime, and today his works are among the most recognizable of 20th-century American art. They can be found in important collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), the North Carolina Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and many others.
This watercolor will be included in Betsy James Wyeth's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work.
