Gurney Journey

Andrew Wyeth was always fascinated by the subject of mortality.

Before his own death in 2009, he painted several visions of skeletons, funerals, and gravesites.

He worked on preliminary sketches for a composition of himself lying in a coffin, surrounded by the people who were important to him, such as his wife Betsy, and his models Helga and Anna Kuerner.

This "Funeral Group" of sketches offers a tantalizing hint at a composition that he never completed. "I might die before it's done," he said. "Maybe you'll only have a pile of loose ideas." 

The Funeral Group sketches, along with a few selected finished works on the subject of death and life, are included in an exhibition currently on view at Colby College Museum of Art in Maine. The exhibition will be up through October 16, 2022.

--

Wikipedia on Andrew Wyeth

Museum catalog: Andrew Wyeth--Life and Death. 

 

N.C. Wyeth, seated nude, charcoal, 1900.

The art produced by the Wyeth lineage—N.C., Andrew, Carolyn, and Jamie—grows out of a tradition of academic drawing and close observation. 

In the case of Andrew, Carolyn, and Jamie, it wasn't an atelier or an art school setting where they learned these skills, but something passed down privately through the family.

Andrew Wyeth, charcoal portrait of Martin Leonard, 1936

The Fenimore Art Museum is currently displaying these mostly unpublished and unseen drawings. They're divided into several categories; academic renderings, figure studies, anatomy drawings, observations of the model, and animal sketches.

  N.C. Wyeth, Oisin in the Land of Youth (composition drawing), 1940, graphite

Victoria Wyeth, Andrew's granddaughter, curated the show with the help of her uncle Jamie. 

They offer the benefit of an insider's perceptions. They recall, for example, that Carolyn would walk around in  studio wearing her father's knickers, which were eccentric even in N.C.'s day.

Jamie Wyeth, pig drawing, 1969

There are a lot of kinds of observational drawings on view, so the art student or practicing artist will enjoy the behind-the-scenes glimpses. 

However, I wish there were more imaginative drawings, thumbnails, process pieces and a few finished paintings that would have shown the complete evolution of an idea from first concept to the end result. 

Andrew Wyeth, Undercover Study, 1970, watercolor (included)

--

Drawn from Life: Three Generations of Wyeth Figure Studies is at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, NY through September 5

Daniel Chester French in his studio

The Norman Rockwell Museum has opened an exhibition about Daniel Chester French and the Lincoln Memorial.

John C. Johansen (Danish-American, 1876-1964) Daniel Chester French in the Chesterwood Studio, 1926

The Museum partnered with nearby Chesterwood, the home and studio of sculptor Daniel Chester French, to assemble a trove of sculptural maquettes and artwork that detail how the memorial was conceived and executed.

The other rooms of the museum are filled with extraordinary paintings by Norman Rockwell.

Norman Rockwell Museum

"Enchanted: A History of Fantasy Illustration" will travel next to Tennessee in May 20, 2022 through September 5, 2022  

"Skeleton Pirate" and "Garden of Hope" 

Artists also include Arthur Rackham, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Gustave Doré, NC Wyeth, Herbert Draper, Howard Pyle, Maxfield Parrish, Frank Frazetta, Winsor McCay, Jessie Willcox Smith, Joseph Clement Coll,  Willy Pogany, J. Allen St. John, Dean Cornwell, Virgil Finlay, Hal Foster, and many more.

The catalog produced by Abbeville, includes 180 images, mostly in color, with essays by Alice Carter, Stephanie Plunkett, and others.

After it goes to the Hunter Museum of America Art in Chattanooga, the exhibition "Enchanted: A History of Fantasy Illustration" will travel to the Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI -- September 23, 2022 through January 8, 2023

Eden Musée opened in 1884, and it served up amusements and exhibitions to New York City. In the basement was the Chamber of Horrors. Upstairs was a collection of paintings and a waxwork collection. And there was a theater for viewing motion pictures, magic lantern shows, and marionettes.  

"The intention of the Musee was to create a Temple of Art. It was filled with tableaux of icy solitudes, the burning sun of Africa as well as figures of distinguished persons, rulers, artists and scientists of the time. The Musee stood on 23rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues for nearly thirty years before closing its doors for the last time in 1915 - a sign of changing times. The collection from the Musee was then moved to Coney Island before it was completely destroyed in a fire in February 1932."

There are four great exhibitions going on in Albany, and they're all in one museum: The Albany Institute of History and Art.

The show includes the cover and endpaper art of Rip Van Winkle, plus illustrations from The White Company and Drums.

 Andrew Wyeth (American, 1917-2009), On the Edge, 2001, Tempera on panel, Bank of America Collection.

There's also a big selection of works by NC Wyeth's son Andrew, his daughter Henriette, and his grandson Jamie. Because these are in the Bank of America Collection, they're not often seen except in traveling exhibitions.

Another show that's on view at the museum is a single large room filled with their famous collection of Hudson River School paintings, hung salon-style. 

Another small but impressive show is Romancing the Rails: Train Travel in the 1920s and 1930s, which focuses on the advertising art that promoted rail travel in the USA.

And there's a show called Fashionable Frocks of the 1920s which presents dresses from the flapper era, extravagant and bejeweled and made for dancing. We tend to think of the '20s in black and white, but it was a time of subtle and impressive coloration.