Jamie Wyeth was born on July 6, 1946, and he is a contemporary American realist painter and the son of Andrew Wyeth. He was raised in Chadds Ford Township, Pennsylvania, and is the artistic heir to the Brandywine School tradition. He demonstrated the same remarkable skills in drawing as his father had done at comparable ages.
Jamie Wyeth at a glance
- Born: 6 July 1946, Wilmington, Delaware
- Nationality: American
- Known for: Realist portraits and paintings of animals
- Medium: Oil, watercolor and tempera
- Family: Son of Andrew Wyeth, grandson of N.C. Wyeth
- Based in: Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and Tenants Harbor, Maine
- Notable works: Portrait of Shorty (1963), Portrait of John F. Kennedy (1967), Portrait of Andy Warhol (1976)
- Also: Court artist at the Watergate hearings
At age 12 he studied with his aunt Carolyn Wyeth, learning fundamentals of drawing and composition, and he developed an interest in oil painting. His influences include Howard Pyle, Winslow Homer, and Thomas Eakins, and he has a wider palette of colors than his father’s. He has painted portraits of John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, and served as a court artist for the Watergate hearings.
“To me, a portrait is not so much the actual painting, but just spending the time with the person, traveling with him, watching him eat, watching him sleep.”
He has painted animals, pumpkins, seagulls, and ravens, often on corrugated cardboard to achieve a rough texture. He participated in NASA’s “Eyewitness to Space” program and served in the Delaware Air National Guard from 1966 to 1971. His work includes the famous Portrait of Shorty and the posthumous Portrait of John F. Kennedy, which is now at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.