Andrew Wyeth

Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) was an American painter whose realistic depictions of rural Pennsylvania and Maine made him one of the most popular (and debated) American artists of the 20th century. Son of illustrator N.C. Wyeth, he was trained entirely by his father and never attended art school.

Wyeth's Christina's World (1948), showing a woman crawling through a field toward a farmhouse, is one of the most recognized American paintings. He worked primarily in egg tempera and watercolor, achieving extraordinary precision and atmospheric subtlety. Critics debated whether his work was illustration or fine art, but the public embraced him. His secret "Helga" paintings, 247 works of a neighbor, were revealed in 1986.