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N.C. Wyeth
Book by Kate F. Jennings
- GenresArtNonfiction
112 pages, Paperback
First published April 12, 1992
18 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 20, 2020
For some reason, I seem to collect books about N.C. Wyeth. A painter of legendary figures and autumnal landscapes and gothic New World visages, Wyeth made the extraordinary commonplace and the ordinary a dream landscape.
This is not a major portfolio of patriarch Wyeth's works, but it serves as an excellent primer for beginners. Many of his Western illustrations are included, along with a handful of landscapes and even a Coca-Cola advertisement.
The biographical information by Kate Jennings is spot-on. Sometimes, when the sun dares to hide its face and the chill begins to creep into October skies, I like to take this volume out and remember the N.C. Wyeth magic over a steaming cup of cocoa.
Book Season = Autumn (the black spot)
This is not a major portfolio of patriarch Wyeth's works, but it serves as an excellent primer for beginners. Many of his Western illustrations are included, along with a handful of landscapes and even a Coca-Cola advertisement.
The biographical information by Kate Jennings is spot-on. Sometimes, when the sun dares to hide its face and the chill begins to creep into October skies, I like to take this volume out and remember the N.C. Wyeth magic over a steaming cup of cocoa.
Book Season = Autumn (the black spot)
August 6, 2007
Of all the painters in the Wyeth dynasty, my favorite has always been the first, N.C. Wyeth. His portraits are nice, but it's his book and magazine illustrations that win me over. The level of detail is amazing, but he never went too photorealistic, which I appreciate. And since a lot of his work in this area covers knights, pirates, outlaws, giants, etc., well, I'm not made of stone here. He's sort of the Norman Rockwell of High Adventure.
Anyway, this is a book of his stuff, one of the cheapie ones you can always find in the bargain sections of Waldenbooks or B&N. Great art for a good price... hard to beat that.
Anyway, this is a book of his stuff, one of the cheapie ones you can always find in the bargain sections of Waldenbooks or B&N. Great art for a good price... hard to beat that.
December 20, 2025
Tall but skinny, this book gives a decent summary of the painter’s life and then presents big colorful plates of his greatest hits organized by genre and theme. Any artist inspired by Thoreau and who paints landscapes with this much reverence has my respect. I like what I see here, so maybe a more in depth exploration is next.
May 10, 2023
Enjoying the artist highlights by Kate F. Jennings. Excellent four page summary of the artist’s life and works. I look forward to tracking down the 112 page version that will hopefully contain more images of Wyeth’s works.
This is a favorite artist, Newell Convers Wyeth, from the ‘Golden Age of American Illustration’. Love his luminous style, the sense of drama (especially the clouds), immediacy and compassion of his art.
Found it interesting that the first sale of his work was to The Saturday Evening Post-similar in story to Norman Rockwell finding success in the same magazine. Also published in: Outing, Metropolitan, Scribner’s, Harper’s, Collier’s. Also published in Ads by companies like CocaCola and Cream of Wheat.
Love that daughter Henriette, son Andrew, and grandson, James, also all painted. Considered part of the Wyeth ‘artistic dynasty’.
“Wyeth had a low opinion of artists who felt compelled to travel to Europe in search of more interesting themes and continental flourishes. The artists and writers he most admired and respected were impressed by content rather than stylistic decoration.”
Admired Mentors and artists with similar style:
Frederick Remington
Mayfield Parrish
Howard Pyle
Winslow Homer
Charles Reed
Clifford Ashley
Alan True/Allen Tupper True
“His uncanny ability to identify with his characters and his willingness to become absorbed with their exploits lent his paintings their emotional force of perception, in addition to the technical finesse they displayed.”
He was born 22 October 1882, Needham, Massachusetts, to a strongly New England family but toured the Western United States and painted many Western Vistas and subjects.
“As early as 1907…[Wyeth] had begun to feel frustrated with the artistic limitations of his magazine work…he yearned to paint the countryside and independent, selective subjects that did not require the props, melodrama, and contrived pictorial relationships necessary to suit commercial ends.”
“…Wyeth was besieged with requests for his work and turned away many assignments. He wrote in April 1916: ‘There has been so much work offered to me that it has been a constant problem what to take and what to leave.’”
Books illustrated:
The Long Roll, Mary Johnston (civil war)
Treasure Island-Stevenson
Pike county Ballads-John Hay
The Story of Christ
Finnish Legends
Kidnapped-Stevenson
The Mysterious Stranger-Twain
Black Arrow-Stevenson
Buffalo Bill Cody Autobiography
Robin Hood-Creswick
The Boy’s King Arthur-Lanier
The Mysterious Island-Jules Verne
The Last of the Mohicans-James Fenimore Cooper
The Courtship of Miles Standish
Robinson Crusoe-Defoe
Westward Ho!
The Deerslayer-James Fenimore Cooper
The Country Gentleman-A.B. McCoy
Children’s Anthology of Literature-Houghton Mifflin
Numerous Murals and commissions for banks, businesses, hotels, schools, memorials, public buildings, and more:
Hotel Roosevelt-New York
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
Hotel Traymore-Atlantic City, NJ (mermaids and sea dragons- possibly destroyed?)
Hotel Utica Dining Room (Native American)-Utica, NY
Forbes Company
Department of the Navy-WWI-Mural of Neptune
New York Treasury Building-92 ft-American Soldiers, Over the Top
Federal Reserve Bank-Boston, MA-founding fathers
And more….
One, The Giant, still hangs in Westtown School, Westtown, PA. 1923
One of my favorite: Cowboy Watering His Horse, (1937) hangs in the museum of Texas Tech University in Lubbock Texas.
Another favorite: Scottish Chiefs, 1921, in the permanent collection of the University of Delaware, Newark, DE
Killed when a train hit his car, 1945, near home in Chadds Ford, PA, age 63.
This is a favorite artist, Newell Convers Wyeth, from the ‘Golden Age of American Illustration’. Love his luminous style, the sense of drama (especially the clouds), immediacy and compassion of his art.
Found it interesting that the first sale of his work was to The Saturday Evening Post-similar in story to Norman Rockwell finding success in the same magazine. Also published in: Outing, Metropolitan, Scribner’s, Harper’s, Collier’s. Also published in Ads by companies like CocaCola and Cream of Wheat.
Love that daughter Henriette, son Andrew, and grandson, James, also all painted. Considered part of the Wyeth ‘artistic dynasty’.
“Wyeth had a low opinion of artists who felt compelled to travel to Europe in search of more interesting themes and continental flourishes. The artists and writers he most admired and respected were impressed by content rather than stylistic decoration.”
Admired Mentors and artists with similar style:
Frederick Remington
Mayfield Parrish
Howard Pyle
Winslow Homer
Charles Reed
Clifford Ashley
Alan True/Allen Tupper True
“His uncanny ability to identify with his characters and his willingness to become absorbed with their exploits lent his paintings their emotional force of perception, in addition to the technical finesse they displayed.”
He was born 22 October 1882, Needham, Massachusetts, to a strongly New England family but toured the Western United States and painted many Western Vistas and subjects.
“As early as 1907…[Wyeth] had begun to feel frustrated with the artistic limitations of his magazine work…he yearned to paint the countryside and independent, selective subjects that did not require the props, melodrama, and contrived pictorial relationships necessary to suit commercial ends.”
“…Wyeth was besieged with requests for his work and turned away many assignments. He wrote in April 1916: ‘There has been so much work offered to me that it has been a constant problem what to take and what to leave.’”
Books illustrated:
The Long Roll, Mary Johnston (civil war)
Treasure Island-Stevenson
Pike county Ballads-John Hay
The Story of Christ
Finnish Legends
Kidnapped-Stevenson
The Mysterious Stranger-Twain
Black Arrow-Stevenson
Buffalo Bill Cody Autobiography
Robin Hood-Creswick
The Boy’s King Arthur-Lanier
The Mysterious Island-Jules Verne
The Last of the Mohicans-James Fenimore Cooper
The Courtship of Miles Standish
Robinson Crusoe-Defoe
Westward Ho!
The Deerslayer-James Fenimore Cooper
The Country Gentleman-A.B. McCoy
Children’s Anthology of Literature-Houghton Mifflin
Numerous Murals and commissions for banks, businesses, hotels, schools, memorials, public buildings, and more:
Hotel Roosevelt-New York
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
Hotel Traymore-Atlantic City, NJ (mermaids and sea dragons- possibly destroyed?)
Hotel Utica Dining Room (Native American)-Utica, NY
Forbes Company
Department of the Navy-WWI-Mural of Neptune
New York Treasury Building-92 ft-American Soldiers, Over the Top
Federal Reserve Bank-Boston, MA-founding fathers
And more….
One, The Giant, still hangs in Westtown School, Westtown, PA. 1923
One of my favorite: Cowboy Watering His Horse, (1937) hangs in the museum of Texas Tech University in Lubbock Texas.
Another favorite: Scottish Chiefs, 1921, in the permanent collection of the University of Delaware, Newark, DE
Killed when a train hit his car, 1945, near home in Chadds Ford, PA, age 63.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 7, 2017
The life sketch is informative and the pictures are pretty, interesting, fun, & exciting.
One interesting thing that I learned was that apparently you had to have a permit to visit the Native American Reservations around Denver in 1904. That is disturbing, it makes the reservation sound very jail-like. More-so, than I previously had thought them. I would like to learn more.
One interesting thing that I learned was that apparently you had to have a permit to visit the Native American Reservations around Denver in 1904. That is disturbing, it makes the reservation sound very jail-like. More-so, than I previously had thought them. I would like to learn more.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews