Timeline

1917

Born July 12, in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania; son of illustrator N.C. Wyeth (1882-1945)

1937

First solo exhibition (of Maine watercolors) at Macbeth Gallery, New York, sells out in two days; appears in ARTnews and Art in America; Macbeth Gallery becomes dealer

1940

Marries Betsy James

2009

Andrew Wyeth died in his sleep at his home in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, after a brief illness

Portrait of President Eisenhower commissioned for Time cover; Philadelphia Museum of Art buys a Wyeth, highest price ever paid for a living artist’s work

Retrospective at Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; traveling solo exhibition organized by Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; receipt of Presidential Medal of Freedom is subject of Time cover story (first artist to appear on the magazine’s cover); Dallas Museum of Fine Arts and Farnsworth Art Museum, Maine, pay record prices for Wyeths

Life magazine refers to Wyeth as, “America’s preeminent artist,” in interview replete with twenty pages of reproductions

Record-setting traveling retrospective organized by Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts visits Baltimore Museum of Art, Whitney Museum, and Art Institute of Chicago

Retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art; group exhibition at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California; begins painting Siri, the second of three serial female models

Brandywine River Museum opens in Chadds Ford, features a constant rotation of Wyeths; retrospective at M.H. deYoung Memorial Museum, San Francisco

Joint exhibition with Robert Motherwell, Abraham Rattner and Ben Shahn at Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston; joint exhibition with Louis Bouché, Edward Hopper, Ben Shahn and Charles Sheeler at Worcester Art Museum, MA; Robert Frost purchases a Wyeth; articles in ARTnews and Time

Inducted into the Institut de France Académie des Beaux-Arts

First living American artist exhibited at Royal Academy of Arts, London; one-man show at Galerie Claude Bernard, Paris; multiple exhibitions including those at San Jose Museum of Art, California, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine, and Coe Kerr Gallery

Traveling solo exhibition organized by National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. results in Art & Antiques, Newsweek and Time cover stories; traveling joint exhibtion with N.C. and Jamie organized by The Brandywine River Museum; controversy over secret series of nudes

Multiple exhibitions including those at Whitney Museum of American Art, Detroit Institute of Arts, Portland Museum of Art, Farnsworth Art Museum, Butler Institute of American Art, Ohio, and ACA Gallery, New York; Coe Kerr Gallery closes, 1992

Subject of White House’s first one-man show; retrospective at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; newly opened Coe Kerr Gallery Inc., New York, begins representing, also represents son, painter Jamie Wyeth; begins painting Helga Testorf, the third of three serial models

Leaves Macbeth Gallery; M. Knoedler & Co. becomes dealer, prices drastically increase as does popularity with collectors; solo exhibition at Knoedler promptly sells out

Christina Olsen becomes first of three serial female models; Museum of Modern Art, New York, purchases Christina’s World; group exhibition at Carnegie Institute Museum, Pittsburgh, PA; befriends Lincoln Kirstein

Andrew Wyeth Gallery is opened at the Brandywine Museum of Art

Elected to the American Watercolor Society, youngest member in organization’s history

Elected to National Academy of Design; first west coast solo exhibition at E.B. Crocker Art Gallery, Sacramento, CA, show travels to the Seattle Art Museum; N.C. Wyeth dies

Participates in major group exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art; paints cover for Saturday Evening Post

Meets Edward Hopper; appears on cover of American Artist

Solo exhibition at Macbeth Gallery results in reproduction of work in New York Times; joint exhibition with Peter Hurd at Corcoran Gallery, Washiington D.C.; group exhibition at Art Institute of Chicago; begins using drybrush

Participates in six Corcoran Gallery biennials, Washington D.C.

Exhibits frequently at Macbeth Gallery and Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts

First of multiple solo exhibitions at Doll & Richards, Boston; one-man show at Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH; begins doing a variety of commercial work to supplement income

Produces a proliferation of watercolors during two summers in Maine; breaks from father’s rigid training; instructed by Hurd, begins using egg tempera; first group exhibition at Philadelphia Art Alliance

Studies traditional academic art and collaborates on various illustrations with N.C. Wyeth; sells illustrations to publisher Charles Scribner’s Sons

Begins drawing and painting regularly; influenced by father and his student, Peter Hurd

Wyeths’ purchase a summer house in Port Clyde, Maine; Andrew will summer and paint here and in Cushing, Maine, throughout his life

Becomes youngest member ever elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters; appears in ARTnews; first retrospective organized by Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester NH, and William A. Farnsworth Library and Art Museum, Rockland, ME, reviewed in Time; joint exhibition with Waldo Pierce at Institute of Contemporary Arts, Boston; group exhibition at Institute of Contemporary Arts, London

Continues to work and live in Chadds Ford and Cushing, Maine