The Apprenticeship of Andrew Wyeth: Painting a Family Legacy

Gr 1-4–More a journey of an artist more than a straightforward biography, this title focuses on the growth and development of the noted American artist Andrew Wyeth. Facing health challenges and growing up in an artistic family with N.C. Wyeth, he grew up with all the ingredients present for being an artist. He was deeply connected to nature, to his imagination, and to art as a means for communicating his experience of the world. The text follows Wyeth’s life, highlighting significant dates such as when he began his apprenticeship in his father’s studio. Rather than painting the heroic figures of his father’s illustrations he was set the task of learning the basics of studying shape, light, and shadow followed by learning about drawing the human body. The boy deeply admired his father but eventually developed his own style and his success as an artist is firmly grounded throughout this title in his connection to people and nature. Back matter includes a bibliography, reproductions of some of Wyeth’s most important works, and further information. The illustrations, done in watercolor and colored pencil, capture the growth of the artist and the beauty of his surroundings in harmony with the artist’s own work.