The Place, Space, and Practice of Andrew Wyeth's Hay Ledge by Edwin Rein Harvey A ...

198 Pages·2014·4.87 MB·English

The Place, Space, and Practice of
Andrew Wyeth’s Hay Ledge

by

Edwin Rein Harvey

A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the

requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

in

History of Art

in the

Graduate Division

of the

University of California, Berkeley

Committee in charge:

Professor Margaretta M. Lovell, Chair
Professor Timothy J. Clark
Professor David M. Henkin

Spring 2014
The Place, Space, and Practice of
Andrew Wyeth’s Hay Ledge

© 2014

by

Edwin Rein Harvey
Abstract

The Place, Space, and Practice of
Andrew Wyeth’s Hay Ledge

by

Edwin Rein Harvey

Doctor of Philosophy in History of Art

University of California, Berkeley

Professor Margaretta M. Lovell, Chair

The works of the American painter Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) have for many decades
been subjects of contentious debate amongst historians and critics of art. The great
majority of these scholars have tacitly agreed, however, that Wyeth’s works are simple
matters—that be they good or bad, “artistic” or “illustrative,” innovative or apish,
“modern” or “traditional,” they are obviously or self-evidently so. Such beliefs are
implied, at least, by the practice of withholding from publication the concrete
observations about individual works upon which broad, totalizing claims about Wyeth
and his practice have been reached.
Intending to correct this mistaken belief about the simplicity and uniformity of Wyeth’s
work, this dissertation enacts a sustained encounter with a single painting—Hay Ledge
(1957)—working at length over the course of three close-knit chapters to demonstrate 1)
the formal, conceptual, and sentimental depth of this particular work, 2) the fact that
Wyeth’s art practice changed over time, and 3) the complexity of the cultural contexts to
which that practice responded and in which Wyeth’s works in general, and Hay Ledge
specifically, have been received and appraised. It thereby begins to bring Wyeth’s
practice into a more stable, balanced light, thus enabling scholars of art and culture more
broadly to reconsider an historically significant phenomenon that they might previously
have found too opaque or too polarizing to engage.
1
For CEH, who supported me from the very beginning, and
in memory of Melanie Gadener, whose own promising
dissertation was sadly left unfinished.
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CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS iv

INTRODUCTION ix

1. CHRISTINA’S “WORLD” 1

2. PRACTICING HAY LEDGE 25

3. WYETH’S MAINE 71

CONCLUSION 98

ILLUSTRATIONS 101

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 169

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Funding for this project came primarily from the undergraduate students at U.C.,
Berkeley, whose tuition became my compensation for many semesters and summers
spent as a teaching assistant and lecturer. Additional financial support came from a Henry
Luce/American Council of Learned Societies Dissertation Fellowship in American Art;
from the Graduate Division of the College of Arts and Sciences at U.C., Berkeley; from a
Jay D. McAvoy Graduate Fellowship in the History of Art at U.C., Berkeley; from a
Henry Luce travel fund granted by the Department of History of Art at U.C., Berkeley;
from my parents, Colin and Cathie Harvey; and from the American People, to whom I
now owe a very large debt, but who, I trust, will forgive what remains after twenty or
thirty years of dutiful payments.
With finances in place, a dissertation becomes a matter of ideas. In terms of
responsibility, those expressed herein are my own. In terms of origin, they come as much
from other people as they do from me: specifically, the many committee members, peers,
and professional colleagues who found this project worth critiquing and improving.
Margaretta Lovell was quite simply indefatigable in this regard, tirelessly reading
draft upon draft and patiently reining me in from one quixotic conceptual digression after
another. If not for her I’d still be out tilting at windmills. David Henkin asked precisely
the right questions at the right times, over and over again; I’ll never understand how he
does this, but I’m glad that he does. Tim Clark, in whose seminar on “Surface, Space, and
Standing” this project began, pulled no punches in his invaluable criticism, trusting that
I’d be only grateful; I am. I can’t claim to have done these three committee members
justice in the following pages, but I have certainly enjoyed trying.
Among my peers, special thanks are due to Jordan Rose, Jacob Haubenreich,
Jenny Sakai, Christopher Flood, and Rufus Frazer, as well as to the ever-encouraging
members of Professor Lovell’s Berkeley Americanist Group, who helped to shape this
project from a meandering prospectus to a final, pointed manuscript: Beth Bennett, Jessie
Brown, Will Coleman, Simona Cupic, Steffi Dippold, Melanie Gadener, Sarah Gold,
Diana Greenwold, Eva Hagberg, Amy Lippert, Meredith Massar, Kappy Mintie, Emily
Moore, Kevin Muller, Linda Phipps, and alphabetically last but by no means least, Elaine
Yau.
Additionally, I am grateful to the generous museum professionals who spoke with
me about this project, responded to email inquiries, and otherwise facilitated my research:
Mary Landa, Audrey Lewis, Christine Podmaniczky, Janice Kasper, Amy Morey, and
Suzanne Hallstein.
I am grateful as well to the private, anonymous owner who allowed me direct
access to the painting—Hay Ledge—to which this project has finally come to terms.
Lastly, I am happily indebted to my family and friends, who were always there to
remind about the larger world of which this project was a part and yet still encouraged me
to see it through to the end. Thankyouplease!!!
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

INTRODUCTION
I.1. Andrew Wyeth, Hay Ledge, 1957. Tempera on panel, 21 ½ x 45 ¼ inches. Private
Collection.
I.2. Page 102 of the May 17, 1948 issue of Life magazine.
I.3.Andrew Wyeth, Karl, 1948. Tempera on panel, 30 ½ x 23 ½ inches. Private
Collection.
I.4. N.C. Wyeth, Columbus Discovers America, 1942. Oil on panel, 27 x 25 ½ inches.
United States Naval Academy Museum.
I.5. N. C. Wyeth, Columbus Discovers America, c. 1942. Charcoal on paper, 45 ½ x 39 ½
inches. Private Collection.
I.6. N.C. Wyeth, The Wreck of “The Covenant”, 1913. Oil on canvas, 40 ½ x 32 ¼
inches. Brandywine River Museum.
I.7. Andrew Wyeth, Christina’s World, 1948. Tempera on panel, 32 ½ x 47 ¾ inches.
Museum of Modern Art, New York.
I.8. Andrew Wyeth, Night Hauling, 1944. Oil on panel, 23 x 37 inches. Bowdoin College
Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine.

CHRISTINA’S “WORLD”
1.1. Andrew Wyeth, Hay Ledge, 1957. Tempera on panel, 21 ½ x 45 ¼ inches. Private
Collection.
1.2. Andrew Wyeth, Christina’s World, 1948. Tempera on panel, 32 ½ x 47 ¾ inches.
Museum of Modern Art, New York.
1.3. Detail of Figure 1.1.
1.4. Detail of Figure 1.1.
1.5. Detail of Figure 1.1.
1.6. Exterior view of the barn at the Olson House, Cushing, Maine. Digital photograph
taken by the author in 2009.
1.7. Interior view of the barn at the Olson House, Cusing, Maine. Digital photograph
taken by the author in 2009.
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1.8. Andrew Wyeth, The Rope, 1957. Watercolor on paper, 20 x 12 inches. Worcester Art
Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts.
1.9. Andrew Wyeth, Study for Hay Ledge, 1957. Watercolor on paper, 21 ½ x 28 inches.
Private collection.
1.10. Andrew Wyeth, Study for Hay Ledge, 1957. Pencil on paper, 21 x 27 inches.
Private Collection.
1.11. Andrew Wyeth, Study for Hay Ledge, 1957 (Detail). Pencil on paper, 14 x 23
inches. Private Collection.
1.12. Detail of Figure 1.1.
1.13. Detail of Figure 1.1.
1.14. Detail of Figure 1.1.
1.15. Andrew Wyeth, Hoffman’s Slough, 1948. Tempera on panel, 29 ¾ x 55 inches.
Everson Museum of Art of Syracuse and Onandaga County.
1.16. Andrew Wyeth, Study for Hoffman’s Slough, 1947. Watercolor on paper, 29 x 41
inches. Private Collection.
1.17. Detail of Figure 1.15.
1.18. Andrew Wyeth, Coming Storm, 1938. Watercolor on paper, 18 x 22 inches. Private
Collection.
1.19. Andrew Wyeth, Night Hauling, 1944. Oil on panel, 23 x 37 inches. Bowdoin
College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine.
1.20. Andrew Wyeth, The Hunter, 1943. Tempera on panel, 33 x 34 inches. Toledo
Museum of Art, Ohio.
1.21. Andrew Wyeth, Christmas Morning, 1944. Tempera on panel, 23 ¾ x 38 ¾ inches.
Curtis Galleries, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

PRACTICING HAY LEDGE
2.1. Andrew Wyeth, Hay Ledge, 1957. Tempera on panel, 21 ½ x 45 ¼ inches. Private
Collection.
2.2. N.C. Wyeth, Blubber Island, 1938. Oil on panel, 25 x 40 inches. National Academy
Museum, New York.
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2.3. Rockwell Kent, Afternoon on the Sea, Monhegan, 1907. Oil on canvas, 34 x 44
inches. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
2.4. William Hogarth, The Painter and his Pug, 1745. Oil on canvas, 35 x 27 inches. Tate
Britain.
2.5. Detail of Figure 4.
2.6. Andrew Wyeth, Study for Hay Ledge, 1957. Watercolor on paper, 21 ½ x 28 inches.
Private collection.
2.7. John Constable, The Hay Wain, 1821. Oil on canvas, 51 x 73 inches. The National
Gallery, London.
2.8. Detail of Figure 6.
2.9. Andrew Wyeth, Alvaro’s Hayrack, 1958. Watercolor on paper, 8 x 22 inches.
Farnsworth Museum.
2.10. Andrew Wyeth, Study for Hay Ledge, 1957 (Detail). Pencil on paper, 14 x 23
inches. Private Collection.
2.11. Andrew Wyeth, Study for Hay Ledge, 1957. Pencil on paper, 21 x 27 inches.
Private Collection.
2.12. Andrew Wyeth, The Rope, 1957. Watercolor on paper, 20 x 12 inches. Worcester
Art Museum.
2.13. Andrew Wyeth, Christina’s World, 1948. Tempera on panel, 32 ½ x 47 ¾ inches.
Museum of Modern Art, New York.
2.14. Andrew Wyeth, Study for Christina’s World, 1948. Pencil on paper, 12 x 18 3/4
inches. Marunuma Art Park, Asaka, Japan.
2.15. Andrew Wyeth, Egg Scale, 1959. Watercolor on paper, 14 x 17 inches. Private
Collection.
2.16. Lucian Freud, Girl with a White Dog, 1950-1. Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches. Tate
Britain.
2.17. Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, 1952. Oil on copper, 7 x 5 inches. Tate Britain.
2.18. Andrew Wyeth, Young Bull, 1960. Watercolor on paper, 19 7/8 x 41 3/8 inches.
Private Collection.
2.19. Andrew Wyeth, Raccoon, 1958. Tempera on panel, 48 x 48 inches. Brandywine
River Museum.
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2.20. Andrew Wyeth, Miss Olson, 1952. Tempera on panel, 25 x 28 inches. Private
collection.
2.21. Jackson Pollock, Autumn Rhythm (Number 30, 1950), 1950. Enamel on canvas, 105
x 207 inches. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
2.23. Andrew Wyeth, Young America, 1950. Tempera on panel, 32 1/2 x 45 1/4 inches.
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia.
2.22. Andrew Wyeth, Study for Brown Swiss, 1957. Pencil on paper. As reproduced on
page 55 of Thomas Hoving, Two Worlds of Andrew Wyeth (Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
1978).

WYETH’S MAINE
3.1. Andrew Wyeth, Hay Ledge, 1957. Tempera on panel, 21 ½ x 45 ¼ inches. Private
Collection.
3.2. Grant Wood, American Gothic, 1930. Oil on board, 29 x 25 inches. Art Institute of
Chicago.
3.3. Andrew Wyeth, Winter, 1946, 1946. Tempera on Panel, 31 3/8 x 48 inches. North
Carolina Museum of Art.
3.4. Andrew Wyeth, Hoffman’s Slough, 1948. Tempera on panel, 29 ¾ x 55 inches.
Everson Museum of Art of Syracuse and Onandaga County.
3.5. Andrew Wyeth, Snow Flurries, 1953. Tempera on panel, 37 ¼ x 48 inches. National
Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
3.6. Andrew Wyeth, Brown Swiss, 1959. Tempera on Panel, 30 x 60 1/8 inches. Private
Collection.
3.7. Andrew Wyeth, Seed Corn, 1948. Tempera on panel, 15 3/8 x 22 inches. Private
Collection.
3.8. Andrew Wyeth, Wind from the Sea, 1947. Tempera on panel, 18 ½ x 27 ½ inches.
Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Amherst Massachusetts.
3.9. Andrew Wyeth, Miss Olson, 1952. Tempera on panel, 25 x 28 inches. Private
collection.
3.10. Andrew Wyeth, Weatherside, 1965. Tempera on panel, 48 1/8 x 27 7/8 inches.
Private Collection.
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