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. i 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 ii 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!!! iii 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. iv 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. v 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.