Betsy James Wyeth (née Betsy Merle James; 26 September 1921[1] - 21 April 2020)[2] was an author and art collector. She was also the business manager and archivist of her husband, artist Andrew Wyeth.[1]
Betsy James Wyeth | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Betsy Merle James September 26, 1921 |
| Died | April 21, 2020 (aged 98) |
| Resting place | Hathorn Cemetery, Cushing, Maine |
| Education | Colby Sawyer College, University of Chicago, B.A. |
| Occupation(s) | Author, art collector, business manager, archivist |
| Organization | Wyeth Foundation for American Art |
| Spouse | Andrew Wyeth (married 15 May 1940) |
| Children | 2 (Nicholas Wyeth and Jamie Wyeth) |
Early life
editBetsy Merle James was born on 26 September 1921 in East Aurora, New York.[2] She was the youngest of three daughters born to Elizabeth Browning, a graduate of Cornell and teacher of Latin, and Merle Davis James, an artist and printer.[1][2]
She attended Colby Junior College, before transferring to the University of Chicago, where she studied archaeology.[2] In 1939, aged 17, she met 22 year old Andrew Wyeth.[2] They became engaged within a week of meeting, and married on 15 May 1940.[2][1] They settled in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.[2] The couple had two sons, Nicholas and Jamie.[2]
Artistic collaboration
editPrior to their marriage, Betsy introduced Andrew Wyeth to the Olsons, a brother and sister.[2] Anna Christina Olson, paralyzed from the waist down, became the subject of one of Andrew Wyeth's best known works, titled Christina's World by Betsy.[2][3] Their son, Jamie, later said "I always felt her signature should be alongside his."[2] Andrew Wyeth said of his wife that she "made me into a painter I would not have been otherwise".[2]
Betsy Wyeth became her husband's business manager, negotiating commissions, organizing shows, and maintaining his catalogue raisonné.[2] She described her role as like that of a film director.[2] She also regularly modelled for her husband, and was the subject of the portrait Maga’s Daughter.[2]
Betsy Wyeth collected the letters of her father-in-law into a book, The Wyeths: The Letters of N.C. Wyeth, 1901-1945.[2][4] An artist like his son, the book helped to catalyze a reassessment of his career.[1] She wrote two books on Andrew Wyeth's work: Wyeth at Kuerners (1976), and Christina’s World (1982), and assisted in the 1995 documentary Andrew Wyeth Self Portrait: Snow Hill.[1][5]
The Wyeths were significant benefactors in art and education.[1] In 1968, they founded the Wyeth Endowment for American Art (later the Wyeth Foundation for American Art).[1] Following Andrew Wyeth's death in 2009, Betsy Wyeth gifted his studio to the Brandywine River Museum of Art.[1]
Preservation efforts
editBetsy Wyeth was a defender and restorer of the Brandywine region's vernacular architecture.[2] She helped to save a 19th-century gristmill by encouraging a neighbour, George Weymouth, to buy it and turn it into a museum.[2] This opened in 1971 as the Brandywine River Museum (now known as the Brandywine Museum of Art).[6] Wyeth also restored the old mill complex on the Brandywine River which became the couple's home and studio.[1]
In Knox County, Maine, she bought three islands (Southern, Allen, and Benner), on one of which she restored a lighthouse.[2] Andrew Wyeth called the area "Betsy’s Village".[2] In 2008, she bought an old sail loft, previously dismantled in Port Clyde.[2] She had it put back together on one of the three islands, as a birthday gift for her husband.[2] The sail loft became the subject of one of Andrew Wyeth's paintings, and was renamed Goodbye by Besty following his death.[2] Allen and Benner islands were acquired by Colby College in 2022.[7]
Betsy Wyeth was a founding member of the Chadds Ford Historical Society, and a driving force in the creation of Island Journal.[1][8] In 1987, she founded Up East Incorporated, to support environmental research, preservation, and education in Maine.[1]
Death and legacy
editBetsy Wyeth died aged 98 on 21 April 2020 at her home in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.[2] The Philadelphia Inquirer remembered her as "the chief architect of the Wyeth mystique".[9]
Between 2020 and 2021, the Brandywine Museum of Art paid tribute to Betsy Wyeth's legacy with a display of 20 drawings and paintings of and about her.[10] In 2022, The Farnsworth Museum in Rockland, Maine staged an exhibition titled Betsy's Gift.[4]
A scholarship in her name, The Betsy James Wyeth Fellowship in Native American Art, is distributed by The Wyeth Foundation for American Art.[11] Since its formation in 2002, the Foundation has provided more than $10 million in financial support for art and artists.[12]
Bibliography
edit- The Wyeths: The Letters of N.C. Wyeth, 1901-1945 (1970)
- Wyeth at Kuerners (1976)
- Christina’s World (1982)
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "In memoriam: Betsy James Wyeth (1921-2020) | Brandywine Conservancy and Museum of Art". www.brandywine.org. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Green, Penelope (2020-04-26). "Betsy Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth's Widow and Collaborator, Dies at 98". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
- ^ "Andrew Wyeth, Christina's World, 1948". MoMA.
- ^ a b "Betsy Wyeth's Maine Island Sanctuary Nurtured Andrew Wyeth's Art | Art & Object". www.artandobject.com. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
- ^ "Betsy Wyeth | Editor, Editorial Department, Producer". IMDb. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
- ^ "Our History | Brandywine Conservancy and Museum of Art". www.brandywine.org. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
- ^ Mendelsohn, Meredith (2022-02-02). "New Life for the Wyeth Legacy Five Miles Out to Sea". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
- ^ Groening, Tom (2021-03-09). "Betsy James Wyeth". Island Journal. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
- ^ Dobrin, Peter (2020-04-21). "Betsy Wyeth, muse and the force behind Andrew Wyeth's success, dies at age 98". www.inquirer.com. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
- ^ "Betsy James Wyeth: A Tribute | Brandywine Conservancy and Museum of Art". www.brandywine.org. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
- ^ "The Betsy James Wyeth Fellowship in Native American Art | Smithsonian American Art Museum". americanart.si.edu. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
- ^ "Wyeth Foundation for American Art - History". www.wyethfoundationforamericanart.org. Retrieved 2024-05-24.