100 Years of Illustration

N.C. Wyeth - 4

Wyeth's style and subject matter was all over the place, as seen in the following examples from work he did in Harper's Monthly Magazine. I wonder about his editors at the magazine and what they were thinking. His great talent and technical ability seems often misplaced. Click on images to enlarge.

May 1914, from The Tobacco Famine at Tamarac. The caption reads: "Looking longingly into the gray eyes of Peachy the Unattainable."

May 1916, from monthly installments of Mark Twain's The Mysterious Stranger. "Eseldorf was a paradise for us boys." Was the author's heavy hand the problem with these?

June 1916, from Mark Twain's The Mysterious Stranger. "The lightning blazed out flash upon flash and set the castle on fire."

July 1916, from Mark Twain's The Mysterious Stranger. "On the fourth day comes the astrologer from his crumbling old tower."

August 1916, from Mark Twain's The Mysterious Stranger. "Marget was cheerful by help of Wilhelm Meidling."

September 1916, from Mark Twain's The Mysterious Stranger."The astrologer emptied the whole of the bowl into the bottle." Those are bad faces in a bad layout, clumsily rendered.

October 1916, from Mark Twain's The Mysterious Stranger. "There was sound of tramping outside and the crowd came solemnly in."

July 1916, from Mark Twain's The Mysterious Stranger. "Life itself is only a vision, a dream."

November 1911, and so much better. From Growing Up by Gouveneur Morris. "The children were playing at marriage-by-capture."

November 1911. From Growing Up by Gouveneur Morris. "Nothing would escape their black, jewel-like, inscrutable eyes."

From December 1913, the following two examples done in a serious, painterly style and with captions set in black letter gothic.

"Come live with us for I think thou are chosen."

"Whe He comes He will rule over the whole world."

N.C. Wyeth - 3

Most, if not all illustrators are rarely happy with what happens to their art after the work goes into production. In the following pieces we see the results of some sloppy handling of N.C. Wyeth's monumental paintings. Certainly they were large. He painted big, and in oils—for the most part. It couldn't have been a piece of cake for the guys working the large process cameras that it would have been necessary to use in those days. Shooting high quality color positive film wouldn't be possible for many decades.

Then there's the printing, cheap paper, terrible register of the four-color presses.
Here they are, in lieu of someone finding the originals down in Chadds Ford and creating some state-of-the-art separations. It's good stuff and well worth preserving for posterity. Click on images to enlarge.

They're all from Scribner's Monthly Magazine from 1909 through 1911.

The War Clouds, March 1909.

Illustrations for poems by George T. Marsh. The line drawing is not Wyeth's. That illustrator was Franklin Booth. December 1909.

Spring.

Summer.

Autumn.

Winter.

The Pay-stage, August 1910.

"It was hard to remember that he was only the wandering leader of an Arab caravan." January 1911.

N.C. Wyeth - 2

These are from another piece in Scribner's Monthly Magazine for January 1909 by N.C. Wyeth which he wrote and illustrated, entitled "A Sheep-herder of the South-west." Click on each image to enlarge.

Pastoral of the South-west.

The Plains Herder.

Navajo herder in the foothills.

N.C. Wyeth: A day with the Round-up

Here he is in what I can only believe is a typical pose. At least from what I know about him from one of his distant relations. The photo is to be found at the site of author David Michaelis, who published a biography of N.C. in 1988.

There's little point in my adding much because of the great links below which I hope you will find enjoyable and entertaining, except to say that Converse, as he was known to family and friends, and I attended the same Boston high school, Mechanic Arts, where we both studied drafting—he in the late 1890s, I in the early 1940s.

There is also another connection. His mother and the grandmother of one of my dear friends who was born Barbara Zaugg, were sisters whose parents emigrated to the United States from Switzerland. Barbara and her mother were often guests of the Wyeths at their summer home in Maine. This generous tradition was continued through the years with Andrew and his wife, Betsy. Family was, and presumably still is, very important to this remarkably gifted family.

Brandywine River Museum is one of the finest small museums to be found anywhere. In this case it's on Route 1 in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.

Click here for a bio of N.C. Wyeth.

The Farnsworth Museum is another splendid small museum, located in Rockland, Maine.

The following illustrations appeared in the March 1906 issue of Scribner's Monthly Magazine. Wyeth was the author of the piece as well. Click on the images to enlarge.

"Rounding up."

Title page.

"Bucking."

"Cutting out."

"The wild, spectacular race for dinner."

"A night herder."