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Wyeths' works up for auction
Artwork by three generations - N.C., Andrew, and Jamie - will be sold in New York.
NEW YORK - Three generations of Wyeth artworks will be auctioned next week, including 14 oil canvases N.C. Wyeth used to illustrate Robinson Crusoe.
The sale next Wednesday at Christie's also includes works by N.C. Wyeth's son Andrew and grandson Jamie.
Andrew Wyeth's Above the Narrows is being offered for sale for the first time since 1961, when mutual-fund pioneer Jack J. Dreyfus bought it from the artist for his home. The tempera work was completed a year earlier and shows the artist's teenage son Nicky on a bluff overlooking the St. George River in Maine.
Previously exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Above the Narrows is expected to bring from $3 million to $5 million.
"It's one of the last great temperas by Wyeth to come on the market," said Christie's head of American paintings, Eric Widing. "There are very few in private hands."
Andrew Wyeth, who focused on the people and landscapes of the Brandywine Valley and coastal Maine in works such as Christina's World, died on Jan. 16 at 91. The Philadelphia Museum of Art held a major retrospective of his work in 2006.
The Robinson Crusoe oils are being sold by the Wilmington Institute Library in Delaware to raise money. They were purchased from N.C. Wyeth in 1922. The auction house estimates they could bring $3.8 million.
"Reluctantly, we came up with the decision to sell the Wyeths," said Rodney Scott, president of the library's board of directors. He said the library explored other options, but none had the potential to raise from $4 million to $5 million to renovate the building and help replenish the endowment, which has taken a hit in the recession.
The canvases have hung in the reading rooms of the Pierre DuPont-built library since Wyeth approached it about purchasing them. Scott said the library has replaced the 14 works with museum-quality reproductions.
The famous illustrator is also known for his brilliantly vivid pictures for other popular classics, including Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Robin Hood, and The Last of the Mohicans.
The paintings that illustrated Robinson Crusoe will be sold individually. Each depicts a critical scene from the book.
"It's the first time in anyone's memory that a nearly complete [N.C. Wyeth] set has come up for sale," said Widing. Of the three additional works in the series, two are in private hands and one is missing, he said.
"They have a realism that makes them all the more powerful as works of art," added Widing. "He's a master of robust realism."
A Couple of Chairs Sitting Around the Coast of Maine, a 1982 work on paper by Jamie Wyeth, is estimated to bring from $120,000 to $180,000. It shows two Victorian lawn chairs against the background of a white coastal home.
