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N. C. Wyeth: A Biography
by David Michaelis
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Knopf (1998-10)
ISBN: 0679426264
EAN: 9780679426264
Dewey Decimal #: 759.13
Binding/Media: Hardcover - 555 pages
Edition: 1st
Release Date: 1998-09-14
SKU: 6068-Wyeth-R
Condition: Used: Very Good
Comments: 1999 edition. Small black ink dot at bottom book edge. VG/VG+ copy.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
An American painting dynasty is portrayed in this huge, riveting biography of N. C. Wyeth.
His name summons up our earliest images of the beloved books we read as children. His illustrations for Scribner's Illustrated Classics (Treasure Island, Kid-
napped, The Last of the Mohicans, The Yearling) are etched into the collective memory of generations of readers. He was hailed as the greatest American illustrator of his day. For forty-three years, starting in 1902, he painted landscapes, still lifes, portraits, and murals as well as illustrations for a long shelf of world literature. Yet he proclaimed "the uselessness of clinging to illustration and hoping to make it a great art." He judged himself a failure, believing that illustration was of no importance.
Despite his dark complexion, he was a towering figure of gargantuan appetites and physical power. His passions were rooted in the nineteenth century. He made adventure, nature, and "the vastness of things" his earliest personal themes. America was his canvas.
David Michaelis's biography of N. C. Wyeth tells the story of his family through four generations. It is
a family saga that begins and ends with the accidental deaths of small boys, a gothic tale that shows how
N.C., while learning to live a safe and familiar domestic life, endangered himself and his children by concealing part of the family legacy--depression, suicide, incest.
We see how his mother's emotional instability and his father's strictness set the stage for his profoundly divided personality. He found in fatherhood the foremost expression of his character--trying to create in the Wyeth homestead his dream of childhood at its most enchanting. He held his children enthralled through their adult lives. He persuaded his inventor son, Nat, to live at home, shepherded his daughter Ann's career as a composer, and taught his three other children--Henriette, Carolyn, and Andrew (N.C. was Andrew's only teacher)--to paint.
The illustrations that N. C. Wyeth undervalued
are now regarded as American classics--the paintings that appeared in Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and The Last of the Mohicans are in museums, joining, as John Updike wrote, "the mainstream of American easel painting."
His work lives. The artist himself is brought alive in David Michaelis's fully realized portrait of this huge-spirited, deeply complicated man, his family, and an America that was quickly vanishing.
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Amazon.com Review
N.C. Wyeth's wondrous paintings of The Last of the Mohicans, Robinson Crusoe, and Treasure Island have given visual form to these stories for generations of readers. Wyeth's extraordinary pictures still carry all the power they had in their heyday. And communal, millennial-bound nostalgia for the first half of the 20th century gives the paintings, if possible, an even more sentimental glow. This meticulous, encompassing study of the tempestuous, difficult, brilliant illustrator also delves into the entire clan of famous Wyeth artists, including Andrew (who was offered a bribe to delay his marriage), and Peter Hurd (who married Andrew's sister Henriette then escaped with her to New Mexico). David Michaelis has done an extraordinary amount of research, and the book should mesmerize Wyeth fans. But he seems to doubt his own ability to make this dramatic material come alive, for he resorts to false suspense--using a baby's death and the suggestion of foul play on page 1 to hook the reader, but nearly 200 pages later allows that there's not really any evidence for his conjectures. And he liberally employs italics, giving the text an insistent tone that is at times intrusive. Nonetheless, Michaelis adroitly chronicles Wyeth's complicated, fraught relationship with his family. And he is especially perceptive in his analysis of N.C.'s stormy ties to his mentor, Howard Pyle. The artist's genteel inability to talk money, even during the Depression; his devotion to his neurotic mother; and the magical world of Chadd's Ford, where he watchfully, jealously raised his children, are all beautifully described. This is a valuable, multifaceted look at a passionate, difficult subject. In the end, Wyeth emerges, warts and all, as a complex individual, whose inner life was thoroughly entwined with every aspect of his art. --Peggy Moorman
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Customer Reviews
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Another giant in the clouds
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-11-02
As a child I was in love with the books he illustrated and the worlds in the pictures, as an adult I fell in love with the moments he created on canvas; and as a librarian, I realized his art helped the stories become real to the reader... The Brandywine school and the tradition of the artists can only be an American story, and a dynasty of artists and their complicated lives is only a fitting result of this insularity. This is an interesting examination of the generations of artists who are still influencing the world of American art and illustration. This is a good addition to the canon.
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More social interactions than art technique
Rating  (4)
Date: 2007-06-08
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
An informative book on what motivated NC to do what he did, but not much on how he arrived at certain colors, composition, studies before completing a major work, etc. There is a lot of information that seems unnecessary, but it all comes together at the end. If you want to know the progression of his work, it is here; but there is not alot on technique.
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If you like biography and American art history, read this book!
Rating (4)
Date: 2007-01-09
3 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
My brother loaned me a copy of this book because we both collect American illustrations. That qualifies some of my enthusiasm for this book a bit. I am already a fan of the golden age(s) of American illustration.
The life of N. C. Wyeth is impressively detailed by the author. He mostly uses detailed and extensive letters written by the family to piece together what would seem a very accurate account of N.C.'s life. This book helped piece together some of the influences I assumed N.C. had throughout his life. From Pyle to the war, depression, to family, it was a very complicated life for the entire family. A great read with enough personal melodrama to keep it very interesting. My only complaint was the occasional writing quirk where the author sometime wrote of the future while writing mostly a chronological book. It's hard to describe, but readers will notice this and occasionally get a little confused by the style. That's my only negative comment. (And frankly, I do not see how this writing method could have been avoided since some of the information was necessary in order to piece the story together.)
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Talent within the studio & the home
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-09-16
The forementioned "Biography at its best" is fitting. David Michaelis went the extra mile to gather coupious historical data on Wyeth and his background. The evidence given paints a picture of the very soul of this man, almost to the point of smelling his oil-stained hands.
It is remarkable to catch a glimpse of this energetic and powerful artist who somehow balanced family, business and sanity by applying passion to all he encountered. Whether or not our hero was particularly faithful to his wife can be argued, but his evident ability to excel in whatsoever he set out to do is inspiring.
A great read for those interested in disciplining one's self to master the studio and the home.
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Biography At Its Best
Rating (5)
Date: 2004-06-30
6 out of 6 customers found this reveiw helpful
Although I was familiar with the paintings of Andrew & Jamie Wyeth, I wasn't aware of N.C. until I read his letters in Dorie McCullough Lawson's wonderful collection, "Posterity: Letters of Great Americans to Their Children." The brilliant writing in those letters, and the story of the tragic accident that killed him and his little grandson, made me want to know more. It led me to this book. I've just finished it, and can't stop thinking about it. If a novelist made up this saga, one might say it was just too fantastic. And yet the most fantastic thing of all is that it's true. David Michaelis weaves the tale, not just of N.C. Wyeth, but of his family and his times. Although so many people are introduced, the writing is clear and vibrant, and one never loses track of who's who. No novel could be more compelling than this saga, with twists and turns that almost had me gasping. Biography just doesn't get any better than this. Whether or not you're interested in Art, it is well worth your time. Bravo to Mr. Michaelis!
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