Andrew Wyeth

He married Betsy Merle James on May 15, 1940. They had two children, Nicholas and Jamie. His wife Betsy had a great influence in his life. It was she who introduced him with Christina Olson, a polio victim who served as a model for his paintings.

On account of poor health condition, he died in his sleep at the age of 91 at his home in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania

Born to artist N.C. Wyeth and Carolyn Bockius Wyeth in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, United States, Andrew Wyeth was the youngest of the five children of his parents.

Due to his sinus problems, he could not attend public school. Instead, he received his education from private tutors at home. It was this time, when he became interested towards art.

When he was very young, he showed his design of a toy miniature theater to his father. Realising his potential for becoming an artist, his father started instructing him in art.

N.C. Wyeth taught him necessary techniques of painting and the use of light and shadows in paintings along with the paintings relation to life and mood. He allowed his son to create his own individual identity as an artist.

Under his father’s guidance, he started painting in watercolours. During this time, he studied art history and was influenced by the painters of Renaissance period. The paintings of Wilslow Homer impressed him much.

He showed some of his paintings to Robert Macbeth, an art dealer of New York City. Impressed by these works, Macbeth organized a solo exhibition at the Macbeth Gallery in New York City in October 1937.

This show featured his representation of watercolour landscape and seascape of Maine where he spent time for several months. The show was successful and all his paintings were sold out within two days and its success secured his position in the art industry.

It was painter Peter Hurd, his brother-in-law, who introduced him to unique technique of paintings like egg tempera. At that time, Andrew’s paintings used to reflect his attention towards detail rather giving importance to colour combination.

The introduction of this new technique helped him to incorporate textural effects in his paintings. In 1945, he created paintings like ‘East Waldoboro’. In the same year, he lost his father a street accident.

This incident left a deep impact on his mind. He expressed this great loss through his artistic creations like ‘Winter 1946’.His painting of barren landscape and single figure reflected his mourning for his father.

He created the painting titled ‘Winter 1946’ after his father’s death in 1945. This painting features a single figure of a boy running down a hill. He identifies himself with the lonely boy and tried to express his sense of loss and inevitability of death through this image.

In 1948, he created the painting ‘Christina’s World’ that shows a woman in a treeless background. The image of Christiana denotes her inner strength though she is physically weak..