N C Wyeth: Artist

Posted in Art, Artist on Wednesday, 6 July 2011

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N. C. Wyeth was an American book illustrator whose work has become highly popular and widely collected.

picture, N C Wyeth, Newell Convers Wyeth, painter, artist, illustrator, King Arthur

King Arthur meets Sir Lancelot, illustrated by N. C. Wyeth

Newell Convers Wyeth was born in Needham, Massachusetts, on 22 October 1882, and attended the Mechanics Arts School, the Massachusetts Normal Arts School, and the Eric Paper School of Art. At the latter he learned illustration under George Loftus Noves and Charles W. Reed.

Wyeth was accepted at Howard Pyle’s School of Art in 1902 where his exuberant personality and talent made him a standout student. Pyle is considered the father of American illustration and emphasised visiting historical sites and the use of props and costumes, designed to stimulate the imagination as well as make the action and costumes appear authentic.

Wyeth’s first professional commission was a cover for the Saturday Evening Post, a bucking bronco published on 21 February 1903. When he was commissioned to illustrated a Western story, Pyle urged Wyeth to head out to the Wild West. In Colorado, Wyeth worked alongside professional cowboys, doing chores around the ranch and rounding up cattle. He visited Native American sites and worked as a mail courier after his money was stolen. A second trip two years later resulted in the beginnings of a collection of authentic artefacts.

Wyeth’s illustrations also included paintings of rural life, book illustrations that encompassed countless classics and magazine illustrations for periodicals, including Century, Harper’s, Ladies Home Journal, McClure’s, Outing, The Popular Magazine and Scribner’s. He also drew posters, calendars and advertising for clients including Lucky Strike and Coca-Cola, and painted murals and portraits.

His enormous success did not make him particularly happy and he complained bitterly about the commercialism on which he was dependent, yet it allowed him to buy an old captain’s house in Port Clyde, Maine, in the 1930s where he took his family for holidays and where he painted seascapes.

He was married to Carolyn Bockius and settled in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, in 1908. The couple had five children, three of whom went on to become artists; youngest son Nathaniel C. Wyeth (born in 1911) was the inventor of the plastic bottles commonly used for drinks.

He died at Chadds Ford on 19 October 1945, aged 62.

Many more pictures by N. C. Wyeth can be found at the Look adn Learn picture library.

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