Featured Work
About
The second daughter of N.C. Wyeth, Carolyn Wyeth showed early artistic talent and studied with her father for nineteen years, the longest of any of his students. Carolyn remained in Chadds Ford, eventually moving into N.C.’s studio after his death in 1945. She then became a teacher, carrying on his tradition of education, and taught other generations of Wyeths, including her nephew Jamie and niece, Anna B. McCoy. She stayed in the family home at Chadds Ford until she died in 1994, and became known for her powerful, introspective work depicting the surrounding land where she lived.
Unlike other artist members of her family, Carolyn Wyeth seldom painted figures, focusing almost exclusively on landscape and still life. Like her father, and especially her brother Andrew, she drew visual sustenance from her immediate surroundings and memories, to create paintings that focused on her studio, interiors and vistas. Wyeth painted the world she knew best – the eighteen acres of land that surrounded her home. Her brooding, introspective work displays a raw power, and despite her avoidance of publicity, many critics and collectors have discovered her talents.
Wyeth developed a highly reductive approach to her subjects and pared down forms to simple but bold, flat shapes often placed in tilting perspectives. Her muted palette, punctuated by bright accents and dramatic contrasts of light and shadow, evokes a sense of solemnity and sad reverie. These imaginative renderings reveal the artist’s deep connection with the Wyeth family home and Chadds Ford where she lived all her life.
Selected Exhibitions with Somerville Manning Gallery
2008 Wyeth Women