I fell in love with the illustrations of NC Wyeth, without really knowing who had painted them. For me, they re-created wonderful stories of adventure and derring-do....in which I could partake vicariously...without the danger of actually being present. And maybe with a shiver, imagine myself present and wonder how I would cope. I've extracted some interesting or (for me) memorable quotes from the book below. Unfortunately, I can't reproduce here the illustrations themselves (which is the main feature and benefit of the book). Words, in this case are a poor substitute for the actual illustrations.
N. C. Wyeth was most widely known as an illustrator. For years there poured forth from his workshop series after series of pictures dramatizing high moments out of classic tales for young people. Through the technique of color reproduction, these works reached an enormous public. They were all characterized by admirable draughtsmanship, pleasure in the dramatic range of human character, and above all, a powerful sense of mood.
It is interesting to speculate for a moment upon what formed the style of this painter. Even in its experimental phases it is a curiously consistent style, it has a signature in every line and reach of light that is unmistakably his. His color is rich, warm, and freshly harmonious. He has an extraordinary skill at capturing the quality of light itself, not merely its symbolic representation in the arrangement of planes and their shadows, and he exercised it to the fullest, with an almost offhand delight in his mastery. His compositions are massive, with the play of great bodies, or loom of rock, or rise of tree.
Wyeth was one of the "greats." Through forty-two years of illustrating, from 1903 until his death in 1945, Wyeth created a large body of important and lasting works-nearly four thousand in all.
He learned his craft under the tutelage of Howard Pyle. At the very heart of Pyle's teaching was his concept of "Mental Projection." It was through this means, potentially, that one might sense fully whatever needed portraying on canvas. "One must live in the picture," Pyle stressed. Later, in his own teaching, Wyeth was to convey the same idea with expressions such as, "Don't just paint a sleeve-become the arm!"
On of the formative events in NCW's career was a trip he made to the west of the USA. and In the January 1906 issue of Scribners Magazine it was noted that Mr. Wyeth had just returned from the West. The story of his experiences "in the cattle country engaged in the work of a cowboy in order to become thoroughly familiar with his subject" would be published in the not too distant future, the magazine promised. In strict accuracy, however, it must be pointed out that Wyeth had not "just returned from the West." He had returned at the end of December 1904.
As in my own experience, the author of the current book says: "The name N. C. Wyeth did not mean anything to me in those years. The pictures that were a part of these books did. The images of them remained with me and were more vivid in my memory, I daresay, than the spellbinding stories they illustrated. But now I do know of N. C. Wyeth, and I recognize what his art has meant to me. I can now look at his contribution in perspective, and it is a certainty that what he gave to me he also gave to tens of thousands of others". Yep, I am one of those "others".
In 1911, Robert Louis Stevenson's unforgettable Treasure Island was issued by Charles Scribner's Sons as the first book in its series known as the Scribner Illustrated Classics, For N. C. Wyeth, it marked the beginning of a long list of great books that he would be commissioned to illustrate over the next thirty years. And I have enjoyed his illustrations in a number of those old books.
All the while NCW was churning out illustrations for magazines and newspapers. The statistics are interesting. From that day in 1903 when his Saturday Evening Post cover appeared, to the end of 1919, a span of seventeen years, Wyeth contributed to approximately twenty-four different periodicals in 275 issues, making a total number of 561 illustrations for them. From 1920 through 1945, an even longer span of time, the number of periodicals for which he worked dropped to nineteen; the number of issues to 100, which contained only 229 Wyeth illustrations.
From his earliest days as an illustrator, Wyeth had expressed a desire to become a landscape painter, and had had many conversations about this with his teacher Howard Pyle, who encouraged him to devote part of his time to such painting. ...... Which he eventually did. The paintings are the product of revolt against the inevitable limitation of the art of illustration which Mr. Wyeth has long served with sincerity and grace. It's interesting that once a person seems to have made it as an illustrator, there is considerable resistance from the artistic community for giving them credit as true artists. (Ken Done has experienced the same treatment in Australia).
Though in 1941 Wyeth was recognized by those who had frowned on illustration as a second-rate art form-he was elected to the National Academy. And in June of 1945 he received a further distinction-the honorary degree of Master of Arts from Bowdoin College.
It's probably not a great work of literature and a fairly basic text but there are a great collection of the paintings and illustrations (and murals) produced by NCW. (Even if it is missing the colour version one of my favourites from Treasure Island on p 80...Captain Bones routes Black Dog. The book is a little dated and a bit short on colour pictures but nevertheless five stars from me. ( )

A TREASURE

A nice, well-illustrated, annotated and organized collection of N.C. Wyeth's work, with copious notes on his life and a complete listing of his works. One of my favorite artists and illustrators. I hadn't realized that Wyeth had worked in so many formats, including immense murals and decorated chinaware. Unfortunately, he died in a train crossing accident in 1946, still at the height of his powers and creativity. ( )