Jamie Wyeth

Provenance:
The Artist.
Acquired directly from the above.
Private Collection, Florida.

Lot Essay:
The Wyeth Family had, and still has, a longstanding tradition of living and working in Maine. The present work depicts the famous farmhouse captured in Andrew Wyeth’s iconic 1948 painting, Christina’s World. Now a National Historic Landmark, the house, located on Hathorne’s Point, was home to brother and sister Alvaro and Christina Olson, whom Andrew had first met in 1939 and remained close to until her death in 1968. 

At the time the present work was created, the Olson House still played an important role in the Wyeth Family. Andrew and Jamie were both drawn to the imposing silhouette of the gabled farm. Very much indebted to his father’s art and technique, Jamie continues the family legacy and captures the Colonial farmhouse eerily standing against a grey and cloudy sky. Green pastures and blueberry fields unfurl before us, stopping us in our tracks and, by virtue of the menacing avian scarecrow in the foreground, maybe even discouraging us from proceeding farther.

Executed when Jamie was only 18, the watercolor not only confirms the artist’s lifetime fascination with birds, but also attests to his abilities to capture the raw and fleeting beauty (the “wondrous strange” quality) of the Maine landscape, which doesn’t easily offer and reveal itself to the viewer.