N.C. Wyeth illustrations at Farnsworth Works for ‘Trending into Maine’ capture artist’s fascination with Maine, its people

ROCKLAND – Maine, observed and imagined, is the subject of a small, but rich exhibit at the Farnsworth Art Museum.

“Trending into Maine: The Illustrations of N.C. Wyeth” features Wyeth’s work for the book “Trending into Maine,” written by Maine native Kenneth Roberts. The works – mostly oils on panel – reveal a burgeoning enthusiasm for the places with which Wyeth – and his son, Andrew, and grandson, Jamie – would eventually become creatively linked.

Newell Convers Wyeth (1882-1945) was an illustrator by trade, producing works for 112 books over the course of his life. But as “Trending into Maine” shows, Wyeth approached the work with the same painterly detail with which he produced fine art pieces.

N.C. Wyeth and his family renovated an old sea captain’s home in Port Clyde in the early 1930s, and it became a regular summer retreat. A few years later, the publishing house Little Brown & Co. contacted Wyeth to ask him to illustrate Roberts’ book, “Trending into Maine,” which was to be published in 1938.

The book, which was last published in 1994, is a part historical, part personal account of the settling and development of Maine, using information from Roberts own family, says Lauren Raye Smith, assistant curator at the Farnsworth,

Wyeth greeted the challenge eagerly.

“He was very excited,” Smith says, and the artist immediately submitted an earlier Maine work, 1934’s “Young Maine Fisherman.” The painting, of a ruggedly handsome fisherman named Charlie Stone, would become the cover art for “Trending into Maine.”

The portrait of Stone shows him piloting his boat in Maine waters, his posture at once casual and strong, an icon of the independence and self-reliance for which Mainers are known.

“He was so fascinated by Maine and Maine people,” Smith says, speaking of Wyeth, which is especially evident in “Young Maine Fisherman” and some of the other illustrations.

The painting reveals details about the boat and Stone’s dress that one can assume are historically accurate.

“His work is always based in fact,” Smith says. Like Roberts, Wyeth had a strong interest in American history. Even though he was given great freedom in this commission, Wyeth corresponded frequently with Roberts about the illustrations, she said.

For a portrait of Roberts’ grandmother, Wyeth used a 19th century painting of the woman, after first using his own daughter as a stand-in for a sketched study. The studies for some of the illustrations included in the exhibit have never been publicly show before, Smith said.

The illustrations produced for the book are almost celebratory of Maine, and certainly a bit idealized.

“The First Maine Fisherman” features a loin-cloth clad American Indian man poised with bow and arrow over a rocky cove, with a young boy crouched behind him. In the deep distance are what appear to be the dramatic cliffs of Monhegan Island, which Wyeth would have been familiar with.

“The Sea Serpent” illustrates what seafaring men reported seeing, except, as Smith points out, instead of a dark and menacing creature rearing out of the waters, it is a gleaming and colorful serpent: red fins, bright green under its jaw, and a bluish-green “mane.” Smith notes that the figures aboard the ship seem to be reacting with wonder and joy rather than with terror at the sighting.

“Dan’l Nason, Sailing Master, 1814” is more evidence of Wyeth’s commitment to accuracy. Before completing the portrait, he wrote Roberts, wondering when fishermen began wearing oilskins. The answer was not until later than the early 19th century setting of the painting, so Nason is seen sporting a skirted coat with silver buttons.

A documentary approach is used in “The Building of a Ship,” which shows the two halves of an enormous sailing vessel being built on a grassy flatland, with a picturesque Maine village in the background.

All of the works share an obvious fondness for the unique light that can be found on clear days over Maine waters.

“It’s a very luminescent look,” Smith says of the group of works.

Soon after the book was published, Wyeth would write that the “Trending into Maine” works were “my tops in illustrative painting.” As odd as it seems today, Smith says Wyeth would sign some of his illustrations and give them away as gifts, or even paint over them for new publications.

The exhibit runs through the fall. The Farnsworth Art Museum is on Main Street in Rockland. Tel: 596-6457.