Elizabeth Meyer
Head of Auction Administration
Lot 54
Andrew Wyeth(1917-2009)Hawking 19 1/2 x 24in, image; 19 3/4 x 24 7/8in, sheet
22 November 2016, 14:00 EST
New YorkUS$250,000 - US$350,000
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Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009)
Hawking
signed 'Andrew Wyeth' (lower left)
drybrush and pencil on paper
19 1/2 x 24in, image; 19 3/4 x 24 7/8in, sheet
Painted in 1978.
signed 'Andrew Wyeth' (lower left)
drybrush and pencil on paper
19 1/2 x 24in, image; 19 3/4 x 24 7/8in, sheet
Painted in 1978.
Footnotes
Provenance
Wm. J. Rothfuss, Greenville, South Carolina.
Takuji Kato Modern Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan.
with Frank E. Fowler, Lookout Mountain, Tennessee.
Private collection, acquired from the above.
Gift to the present owner, 2006.
Exhibited
San Jose, California, San Joe Museum of Art, Paintings by Andrew Wyeth, November 17, 1979-January 9, 1980, n.p., illustrated.
Literature
T. Kato, Collection Catalogue: Takuji Kato Modern Art Museuum, Tokyo, Japan, 1991, n.p., illustrated.
This work will be included in Betsy James Wyeth's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work.
The present work features the model Eric Standard, a neighbor of Andrew Wyeth's in Maine. The artist knew the boys' family and painted both Eric and his older brother Stephen Standard consecutively. Stephen Standard was the model for an earlier tempera, executed in 1972, titled Off at Sea, currently in a private collection. The drybrush study for Off at Sea, also featuring Stephen, The Vestry, belongs to a private collection, New York.
In a letter dated December 9, 1978, written by the artist to the original purchaser of Hawking, William Rothfuss, of Greenville, South Carolina, Wyeth discusses the present work and its inception. He writes, "Five years ago I painted Eric Standard's older brother Stephen who was then fourteen. Two years later he tragically died. It was a great loss to all. Several years went by and I saw his younger brother Eric on the road walking. I was shocked to see he looked just like Stephen and asked him to pose. In the portrait I did try to get the clear light of the North – his face reminded me of a young Medieval Hawker."
After the present work was finished, Eric Standard would appear in additional works by the artist. Most notable, his 1979 portrait, The Clearing, still in the collection of the artist's late wife, Betsy James Wyeth.
