Jamie Wyeth

American, 1946

Son of Andrew Wyeth and grandson of N.C. Wyeth, Jamie grew up in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. He received private home tutoring while studying painting with his aunt Carolyn Wyeth, who taught him the rudiments of classical draftsmanship.

During these formative years, Wyeth would hone his skills by making charcoal still life drawings in N.C. Wyeth’s old studio. He later spent three years working as an apprentice to his father, after which time he moved to New York, refining his skills in depicting human anatomy by studying and drawing corpses in a hospital morgue. After experimenting with various media, Wyeth found that in contrast to his father, who favors tempera, he was drawn to the bright hues and the moist, lush effects of oil paint, which he began to use regularly in 1963.

Wyeth developed a traditional realist style, initially working in the meticulous manner of his father but imbuing his work with his own personal touch. During the 1960s and 70s, he applied this approach to portraits (among them his well-received posthumous image of John F. Kennedy, done in 1967), in which he captured the humanity of his sitters and revealed himself as a master of the human form. His portrait oeuvre includes images of artists like Andy Warhol to politicians like President Jimmy Carter, all portrayed with an eye for detail and a desire to evoke the individual spirit of his subject.

As part of three generations his paintings have frequently traveled in international museum tours and across the U.S. His close friendship with Andy Warhol in the 1970’s led to a museum exhibition of paintings by Warhol, Basquiat and Wyeth in 2006. In 2014 a solo American museum retrospective, which toured across country, highlighted Jamie’s individuality and inclusion in the contemporary art world.

Courtesy of Somerville Manning Gallery