PORT CLYDE, Maine — Three original paintings by Jamie Wyeth plus an illustration by his legendary grandfather were destroyed in an overnight fire that raged through waterfront businesses in this tourist town.
Around 11 p.m. Wednesday night, part of the Dip Net restaurant on the shore of Port Clyde caught fire. The blaze quickly spread to neighboring businesses, including the Port Clyde General Store and Linda Bean’s Maine Wyeth Art Gallery. Nobody was hurt in the fire.
The gallery, which is owned by Linda Bean, a Port Clyde resident and a member of the family that owns L.L. Bean, holds original works by the Wyeth family, as well as memorabilia, books and other items. All of it was destroyed, Bean said in a statement.
The family is from Pennsylvania but has long summered in the area, beginning with patriarch N.C. Wyeth, an illustrator who had a home in Port Clyde and died in 1945. His son, Andrew, who is known for the 1948 painting “Christina’s World” set in Cushing, lived in Port Clyde and died at age 91 in 2009. Jamie is his son and has a home in Tenants Harbor.
The Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland is most known for its collection of Wyeth originals, but Bean’s gallery had three works by Jamie Wyeth. The ones lost were “Snapper,” “With Green Peppers” and “Red Tail Hawk,” gallery worker Christy Christensen said.
One was worth $100,000, she said. In a statement, Bean said an original N.C. Wyeth illustration for a print run of “Men of Concord” by Henry David Thoreau was also lost.
“[The Wyeths] were just like locals, even though they’re famous,” Christensen said. “It’s just losing a piece of history.”
Jules Walkup is a Report for America corps member. Additional support for this reporting is provided by BDN readers.
