Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine. Gift of the Cawley Family, Brandywine River Museum of Art. Purchase made possible by the Robert J. Kleberg, Jr. Private collection. During his childhood, Jamie had before him the example not only of his father and grandfather but also of two of his aunts, Carolyn Wyeth and Henriette Wyeth Hurd, and his uncles Peter Hurd and John McCoy - all painters. Jamie had pencils, brushes, and paints always at hand; it was natural for him to use them to express his impressions of the world around him.
He left public school after the sixth grade to be tutored at home so he could devote more time to art. Having acquired most of his own schooling from private tutors, his father didn't consider a formal education necessary for an artist.
After taking English and history lessons in the morning, Jamie would go to his aunt Carolyn's studio where, for the first year, he was assigned to drawing spheres and cubes.
Indifferent to sports and games and undistracted by the social activities that would have claimed his attention in school, Jamie spent his childhood days studying, sketching, and painting under the tutelage of his aunt. He offered constructive criticism and discussion on completed works. We are completely frank—as we have nothing to gain by being nice. By the time he was 18, he had begun to paint portraits in oils, including works that still stand among his most powerful, such as Draft Age and Shorty.
Jamie examined all aspects of the appearance and character of the people he painted. For his portrait of Lincoln Kirstein, he required hours of posing by the impresario.
True to his approach, Jamie studied anatomy for one winter at a Harlem hospital morgue in New York. Portrait of Shorty , My world was totally in my drawings. Working in New York City also could be seen as a strategic move. To be taken seriously, Wyeth needed to distance himself from his father, who was rejected by critics consumed by the appetite for abstract expressionism that grew mid-century, even as his popular appeal soared.
Wyeth says the move was not at all calculated. I was not affected by things. I was too tuned in to studying him, his looks—the white wig, the make-up. But I wanted to get in, do it and get out. I did endless studies. Then I finally squeezed that sponge dry. So he went home. Whether working in coastal Maine—Tenants Harbor or Monhegan—or at Point Lookout Farm, his home in the Brandywine Valley, Wyeth returns again and again to the subjects and scenes that have compelled him since youth: the ocean, the land, various trees, the night sky, Phyllis, various other people, birds of many kinds, farm animals, pets and pumpkins—lots of pumpkins.
By example, he is quintessentially American—individualistic, a tamer of the wilderness that is his own imagination. He paints his heart.
He paints his soul. Heart and soul—dual seats of mystery. Is she an angel? A ghost? These things are incredible obsessions at the time … Is there something emanating out of the painting because of that obsession?
I think people sense that. Wyeth in Maine, however, is altogether different. The later paintings show only N. Kennedy likes it. Recently, Jamie purchased a piece of Monhegan, next door to artist William Hekking. Most of the people I know on Monhegan live there the year round.
Whether or not he ever elects to become a Maine year-rounder, Maine and its people already share lavishly in the brilliant work of a young artist called Jamie, who has both the individuality and the industry of one of their own. Where in Maine? Photography Workshops Birdwatching. Reading An Artist Called Jamie. Share Tweet. An Artist Called Jamie. Jamie Wyeth. Photograph by Paul Seligman.
Jamie left and brother Nicky playing on the rocks at Broad Cove, Cushing in , when the family's summer home was being built. Photograph by Jim Moore.
Photographed by Marge Cook. Photographed by Jim Moore. Purchase the March digital issue! See all results. Remember Me. Sign In. Lost password?
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