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Lot Essay
Originally painted in 1945, Rum Runner illustrates Andrew Wyeth's mastery of tempera. On this media Wyeth has said: "It's a dry pigment mixed with distilled water and yoke of egg. I love the quality of the colors: the earths, the terra verde, the ochers, the Indian reds, and the blue-reds. They aren't artificial. I like to pick the colors up and hold them in my fingers. Tempera is something with which I build--like building in great layers the way the earth was itself built. Tempera is not the medium for swiftness." (as quoted in T. Hoving, Andrew Wyeth, New York, 1995, p. 11) At this time in his career Wyeth weighed heavily on the significance of materials and technique, aiming to minimize the trace of the artist's hand. "My aim is to escape from the medium with which I work. To leave no residue of technical mannerisms to stand between my expression and the observer. To seek freedom through significant form and design rather than through the diversions of so-called free and accidental brush handling." (A. Weinberg, Unknown Terrain: The Landscapes of Andrew Wyeth, New York, 1998, p. 30)
Painted on Teel's Island, off the coast of Maine, Rum Runner embodies one of Wyeth's favorite motifs, a portrait of a local set amidst a realist landscape. Wyeth had befriended Walter Anderson as a child, while summering in Port Clyde, Maine. A man best known for his lobster poaching, Wyeth asked Anderson to pose for this painting because, as discussed by Wyeth "underneath you feel the pirate side to his personality. There is something mysterious about a sail appearing suddenly from nowhere and passing swiftly by an island that reminds me of treachery at sea... underneath his charm was a real pirate." (J. Morris and J. Canaday, Works by Andrew Wyeth from the Holly and Arthur Magill Collection on Loan to The Greenville County Museum of Art, p. 50) The contemplative composition depicts Anderson in profile looking out to sea, leaning against a dory that has been hauled on shore, with a sloop passing in the distance. Wyeth successfully depicts the inherent connection between Anderson and the sea, to the viewer. "What it all comes down to is that, while the typical twentieth-century artist thinks of his work as a demonstration of theoretical principles offered for discussion with a band of specialists, Wyeth, this extremely personal artist, thinks of his pictures as a form of emotional communication with people in general-- a goal that, after all, is his strongest tie to tradition in an age of revolution." (Works by Andrew Wyeth from the Holly and Arthur Magill Collection on Loan to The Greenville County Museum of Art, p. 16)
Originally titled To the Westward, Wyeth renamed the painting Rum Runner in 1974. He also moved the figure from the front side of the boat to the position it is in now and added the sloop. (Anderson returned to Teel's Island to pose for Wyeth a second time) A "rum runner" was a boat that smuggled booze into New Jersey and Florida during the 1920's. The connection, if any, between the painting and the title is questionable. Could Wyeth be implying that the 'pirate side' of Anderson would have been well suited in the days of prohibition working on a rum runner? "Brown Swiss (Private Collection) and The Sweep (Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, Michigan) also have metaphorically evocative titles. Yet the very spareness of the man-made elements in these works puts a brake on anecdotal musings. They are connotative elements which conjure associations rather than, as in some Wyeth paintings, denotative signs proposing literal readings. Each component is more a self-sufficient subject of the composition than a passage in a tale. (A. Weinberg, Andrew Wyeth, New York, 1998, p. 23)
Indeed, "only a true artistic independent like Andrew Wyeth could have created something of such pure simplicity and maddening complexity, something so obvious yet so satisfyingly clandestine." (Andrew Wyeth, p. 14)
This work will be included in Betsy James Wyeth's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work.
Painted on Teel's Island, off the coast of Maine, Rum Runner embodies one of Wyeth's favorite motifs, a portrait of a local set amidst a realist landscape. Wyeth had befriended Walter Anderson as a child, while summering in Port Clyde, Maine. A man best known for his lobster poaching, Wyeth asked Anderson to pose for this painting because, as discussed by Wyeth "underneath you feel the pirate side to his personality. There is something mysterious about a sail appearing suddenly from nowhere and passing swiftly by an island that reminds me of treachery at sea... underneath his charm was a real pirate." (J. Morris and J. Canaday, Works by Andrew Wyeth from the Holly and Arthur Magill Collection on Loan to The Greenville County Museum of Art, p. 50) The contemplative composition depicts Anderson in profile looking out to sea, leaning against a dory that has been hauled on shore, with a sloop passing in the distance. Wyeth successfully depicts the inherent connection between Anderson and the sea, to the viewer. "What it all comes down to is that, while the typical twentieth-century artist thinks of his work as a demonstration of theoretical principles offered for discussion with a band of specialists, Wyeth, this extremely personal artist, thinks of his pictures as a form of emotional communication with people in general-- a goal that, after all, is his strongest tie to tradition in an age of revolution." (Works by Andrew Wyeth from the Holly and Arthur Magill Collection on Loan to The Greenville County Museum of Art, p. 16)
Originally titled To the Westward, Wyeth renamed the painting Rum Runner in 1974. He also moved the figure from the front side of the boat to the position it is in now and added the sloop. (Anderson returned to Teel's Island to pose for Wyeth a second time) A "rum runner" was a boat that smuggled booze into New Jersey and Florida during the 1920's. The connection, if any, between the painting and the title is questionable. Could Wyeth be implying that the 'pirate side' of Anderson would have been well suited in the days of prohibition working on a rum runner? "Brown Swiss (Private Collection) and The Sweep (Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, Michigan) also have metaphorically evocative titles. Yet the very spareness of the man-made elements in these works puts a brake on anecdotal musings. They are connotative elements which conjure associations rather than, as in some Wyeth paintings, denotative signs proposing literal readings. Each component is more a self-sufficient subject of the composition than a passage in a tale. (A. Weinberg, Andrew Wyeth, New York, 1998, p. 23)
Indeed, "only a true artistic independent like Andrew Wyeth could have created something of such pure simplicity and maddening complexity, something so obvious yet so satisfyingly clandestine." (Andrew Wyeth, p. 14)
This work will be included in Betsy James Wyeth's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work.