AFA Autumn 2019

Antiques & Fine Art 83 2019 artists such as Frederic Remington, Charles M. Russell, and Charles Schreyvogel. In 1904, Wyeth traveled in Colorado and New Mexico for almost three months; two years later he returned to Colorado for a brief stay. On the walls of his Wilmington studio hung all manner of cowboy gear and Native American artifacts that he had collected, props that would add a touch of authenticity to his Western imagery. He steadily mined popular themes of a bygone era—animated with cowpunchers (Fig. 2), desperadoes and Native Americans (Fig. 3)—to great fame and further commissions. He dealt in the dramatic, romantic imagery of the mythical “Old West,” rather than historically accurate renderings. Despite his success as a Western artist, Wyeth realized his heart lay in the rural countryside around Chadds Ford, in Southeastern Pennsylvania. He had come to “the Ford” first in 1903, as a student in Howard Pyle’s summer school. Smitten with the gentle hills, pastureland and rich history of the Brandywine valley, in 1907, Wyeth and his wife Carolyn left the Wilmington art community and settled in a rented farmhouse in Chadds Ford. The natural beauty of the area sharpened the artist’s inclination for landscape painting, but it also underscored the tension between illustration and fine art that would trouble him for the rest of his life. In many of his paintings from this period he tried to bridge the perceived gap between these two aspects of his practice (Fig. 4), but he occasionally admitted, “the viewpoints of the painter and the illustrator are so entirely different.”  1 Wyeth found inspiration in the art and career of Winslow Homer, who had overcome the pejorative connotations of illustration to become the most famous American artist of his time. In 1911, Wyeth was offered a commission that would define Fig. 7: N. C. Wyeth (1882–1945), The man with the hatful of cards picked a hand out of his reserves, put the hat on his head and raised Bill a hundred. Bill came back with a raise of two hundred, and as the other covered it he shoved a pistol into his face observing: “I’m calling the hand that is in your hat.” 1916. Oil on canvas, 32 x 40 inches. William I. Koch Collection.