Trodden Weed
Trodden Weed is a 1951 painting by the American artist Andrew Wyeth. It is a self-portrait, displaying the painter from his knees down, dressed in a pair of old, high leather boots.
| Trodden Weed | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Andrew Wyeth |
| Year | 1951 |
| Type | Tempera on board |
| Dimensions | 50.8 cm × 46.35 cm (20 in × 18 1/5 in) |
| Location | Private collection |
The boots had belonged to N. C. Wyeth's teacher Howard Pyle.[1] Andrew Wyeth had received the boots as a Christmas gift from his wife in 1950. The boots fitted him and he used them as he walked around the countryside of Chadds Ford recovering from a serious operation. Wyeth described the creation of this painting in a letter published in ARTnews in May 1952.[2]
Michael Ennis of Texas Monthly wrote in 1987: "In Trodden Weed (1951), a self-portrait from the knees down in which the artist donned Howard Pyle's wrinkled old boots, Andrew strides the coppery turf with an autobiographical symbolism that is as hackneyed as it is visually moribund".[3]
References
- Beem, Edgar Allen (2009-01-16). "The Ghost of Andrew Wyeth". New England Today. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
- Andrew Wyeth: Dry Brush and Pencil Drawings. Fogg Art Museum. 1963. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
- Ennis, Michael (1987). "From the Wyeth House to the White House". Texas Monthly (10): 148. ISSN 0148-7736. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
Further reading
- McBride, Henry (1951). "All Quiet on the Whitney Front". ARTnews (11): 19. ISSN 0004-3273.