Wyeth, Andrew Newell

Wyeth, Andrew Newell (1917- ), American painter, noted for his interpretations of the people and the austere rural landscapes of Pennsylvania and Maine. He was born in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and was trained by his father, the painter, illustrator, and muralist Newell Convers Wyeth (1882-1945). Andrew Wyeth held his first one-man show at the age of 20 and won immediate acclaim. His works are chiefly watercolour and tempera; his colours are predominantly subtle shades of brown and grey. His compositions display technical brilliance, realism, and affection for his subjects. Among Wyeth's best-known works are Christina's World (1948, Museum of Modern Art, New York), Her Room (1963, Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, Maine), and Spring Fed (1967, W. E. Weiss, Jr., Collection). Perhaps the most popular painter of his day, he received the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963, and in 1970 he became the first living artist to be accorded an exhibition in the White House. In 1986, 240 previously unknown works, all studies of a woman named Helga, were revealed to the public for the first time. In 1990 Wyeth was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the first artist to receive this honour. Andrew Wyeth's son, James Browning Wyeth, is also an artist. The Center for the Wyeth Family, exhibiting works by both artists, as well as works by Andrew's father, opened in Rockland, Maine, in 1998.