Where W. Rat Lives

The present work may garner inspiration from the Wyeth family's farm, Point Lookout, on the Brandywine River in Pennsylvania. "Jamie knows every inch of this rolling country...What appeals to the naturalist in Jamie is not the far-off, idealized landscapes of sun-splashed meadows but the views from deeper in the woods and closer up. It's a vision of an irresistible force imposing its will—breaking through the fungus, root systems, split trunks. What emerges from these studies is a sense of power of the life-and-death cycle at work." (Jamie Wyeth, Boston, Massachusetts, 1980, p. 72)

The title of the present work, Where W. Rat Lives, refers to Water Rat—commonly known as Ratty—one of the main characters featured in Kenneth Grahame's 1908 novel, The Wind in the Willows, a favorite of the artist.