Imagine Maine’s loss if the Wyeth family had summered in the Hamptons or Cape Cod instead of along the rocky Knox County coast. Three generations of the Wyeths did come to Maine — Newel Convers, better known as “N.C.”; his son Andrew; and Andrew’s son Jamie. Each found a niche in the American art scene and each, in different ways, faithfully and unflinchingly captured Maine in iconic images.
On Friday, Maine and the art world did lose one of its treasured Wyeths, painter Andrew Wyeth, who died at 91 at his home in Chadds Ford, Pa.
Andy Wyeth, as he was known around Rockland and the Penobscot Bay islands where he and his wife, Betsy, lived in the warm months, painted scenes of Maine that captured the rugged beauty of the coast. But they weren’t the pretty pictures of lighthouses and lobster boats. Mr. Wyeth’s vision of Maine was often dark, and spoke of loneliness and barrenness, had a psychological element, and featured the eccentricity of its people, their homes and rituals. His palette was muted, reminding a viewer of the faded beauty that can be found in driftwood, bleached by salt and sun.
One can only guess at how many framed prints of “Christina’s World” hang in homes around the world. Probably his most famous painting, the 1948 work depicts the limited geography faced by a young Cushing woman, crippled by polio. It now hangs in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Frances Holdgate, director of the Farnsworth Art Museum gift store in Rockland, said prints of Mr. Wyeth’s paintings “Geraniums,” “Master Bedroom,” “Around the Corner,” “The Carry” and “Blueberries,” a study for the painting “Distant Thunder,” are among the favorites purchased by visitors. From fishermen to academics, people “seem to get it,” she said.
“People are very passionate about Andrew,” Ms. Holdgate said. “So often, people didn’t put words to it — they’re just moved.”
The Farnsworth has had a 60-year relationship with Andrew Wyeth and regularly organizes shows around his paintings, and the museum includes the Wyeth Center for study of the famous family’s work.
George Kinghorn, director of the University of Maine Museum of Art, called Mr. Wyeth one of “the pre-eminent American Realist painters,” whose works “convey an incredibly sensitive sense of place and mood, with a certain reflective nature.” The museum owns two Wyeth watercolors donated in 1948; they will be on display next week.
Mr. Wyeth did right by Maine, and earned a place of honor among summer residents. We suspect Maine did right by him, too, giving him rich subjects to paint, and an idyllic life that only a Maine island could offer.