1917 — Born July 12 in home of his parents, Chadds Ford, PA. Mother was Carolyn Brenneman Bockius. Father was Newell Convers (N.C.) Wyeth, a distinguished illustrator. Wyeth is the last of five siblings – Henriette (born 1907), Carolyn (born 1909), Nathaniel (born 1911), and Ann (born 1915).
1920s — The family spends each summer in Maine, eventually purchasing a property in Port Clyde.
1923-29 — Educated at home by tutors.
1932 — Accepted into his father’s studio as an apprentice. Two of N.C.’s other students, John McCoy and Peter Hurd, will eventually marry Ann and Henriette.
1933 — Began painting and drawing at the Kuerner property in Chadds Ford.
1934 — Andrew and his father being experimenting with tempera painting, encouraged by Peter Hurd, the artist married to Andrew’s sister Henriette.
1935 — Work by the Wyeth Family, Philadelphia Art Alliance, Pennsylvania, March 25 – April 19. The artist’s father N.C. and sisters Henriette and Carolyn also represented the family here.
1937 — First one-man exhibition at Macbeth Gallery in New York at age 20. All paintings were sold.
1939 —Watercolors by Andrew Wyeth, Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire, April. The artist’s first solo exhibition at a museum.
Met Betsy Merle James, who in turn introduced him to model Christina Olson, July.
1940 — Married Betsy James in her hometown of East Aurora, NY. The two settle in Chadds Ford and continue to spend summers in Maine.
1941 — Elected for membership of American Watercolor Society. At age 23, he was the youngest member ever to be chosen.
First son, Nicholas, born September 21.
Has eight works included in Americans 1943: American Realists and Magic Realists, Museum of Modern Art, New York.
1945 — Father and his three-year-old nephew killed when their car was struck by a train near Chadds Ford, PA.
1946 — Winter, 1946 (tempera on panel) is completed.
Second son, James (Jamie), born, July 6.
1948 — Painted Christina’s World using Christina Olson as his model. Months later, the painting was acquired by Museum of Modern Art, New York.
1950 — “Andrew Wyeth Paints a Picture”, Elaine de Kooning. Art News, March.
1951 — The artist endured life-threatening surgery to alleviate bronchiectasis, a treatable but incurable lung disease.
1953 — Andrew Wyeth, M. Knoedler & Company, Inc., New York, October 26 – November 14, marks new representation when the Macbeth Gallery closes its doors.
1954 — Received his first Honorary Doctorate Degree, from Colby College, Waterville, ME.
Eventually, the artist received 24 honorary degrees from colleges and universities including Harvard, Dartmouth, and the University of Pennsylvania.
1955 — Elected to membership of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Institute of Arts and Letters, New York, as the youngest member ever selected.
1956 — Andrew Wyeth, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, California, July 12 – August 12; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California, August 28 – September 23.
American Watercolor Exhibition, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, August – September.
1958 — Acquires a property on the Brandywine River in Chadds Ford – an 18th century flour mill complex which will be restored and serve as a home for the young family.
1959 — Completes Groundhog Day (tempera on panel), which was soon acquired by the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
1960 — Elected to membership of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Cambridge, MA.
He was youngest member ever to be elected.
1962 — Awarded the Certificate of Merit by the American Watercolor Society, New York, NY.
Andrew Wyeth, Temperas, Water Colors and Drawings, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, November 2 – December 9.
1963 — Received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President John F. Kennedy, which was presented by President Johnson in December, following the death of President Kennedy.
The artist appears in Time magazine, his portrait on the cover was painted by his sister, Henriette Wyeth Hurd.
1965 — Andrew Wyeth, an interview, Richard Meryman and As One Craftsman to Another, George P. Hunt, Life, May 14.
Received Gold Medal “for preeminence in painting” from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Institute of Arts and Letters, NY.
1966 — Appointed by the United States Post Office Department, Washington, DC, to the Stamp Advisory Committee.
Given the Gold Medal of Honor by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, preceding the opening of Andrew Wyeth – Temperas, Watercolors, Dry Brush, Drawings, 1938 – 1966. This retrospective exhibition also traveled to Baltimore, Chicago, New York, and Chicago.
1967 — Elected as member of the Smithsonian Art Commission, Washington, DC.
The World of Andrew Wyeth, ABC-TV, Schwartz-Wallace Productions.
1968 — Christina Olson, subject of more than 200 drawings and paintings, died on January 27 at age 74.
Painted The Sauna, a tempera of Siri, a Maine model who was to be featured in major paintings through the 1970s.
1970 — Andrew Wyeth, The White House, Washington, DC, February 19 – March 28, the first solo exhibition of art ever shown there.
Named to serve on the Committee of the President’s Commission for the Observance of the 25th Anniversary of the United Nations, Washington, DC, by President Richard M. Nixon.
1971-85 — Painted the major body of work that later became known as the Helga Collection.
1971 — Wyeth People: a portrait of Andrew Wyeth as he is seen by his friends and neighbors, Gene Logsdon. New York: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1971.
The Brandywine River Museum (of Art) opens in Chadds Ford.
1973 — Mrs. N. C. Wyeth, Andrew’s mother, died on March 15.
The Art of Andrew Wyeth, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, California, June 16 – September 3.
1974 — Andrew Wyeth, The Lefevre Gallery, London, May 23 – June 22.
Andrew Wyeth, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, April 6 – May. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Kyoto, Japan, May 25 – June 30.
1976 — Two Worlds of Andrew Wyeth: Kuerners and Olsons, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, October 16, 1976 – February 6, 1977. This was the first solo exhibition by a living artist to be presented by the Metropolitan Museum.
1977 — Elected Associate Member to the Institut de France Academie des Beaux Arts, Paris. Wyeth makes his only overseas trip to accept the honor in May 1978. He and John Singer Sargent (1856 – 1925) remain the only two Americans ever welcomed into the Académie.
1978 — Elected to membership of the Soviet Academy of the Arts, Leningrad, USSR.
Awarded gold medal of the National Arts Club.
1979 — Karl Kuerner, subject of many paintings at the Kuerner farm, died at age 80, on January 6.
Works by Andrew Wyeth from the Holly and Arthur Magill Collection, Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, South Carolina, opened September 11.
1980 — Andrew Wyeth, Royal Academy of the Arts, London, June 6 – August 31. This was the first exhibition by a living American artist at the Royal Academy.
The Real World of Andrew Wyeth, BBC, Andrew Schnell, producer,
1981 — Temperas, Aquarelles, Drybrush, Dessins, Galerie Claude Bernard, Paris, December 2, 1980 – January 31, 1981.
1984 — Peter Hurd died July 9.
1985 — United Nations Postal Administration issued two stamps with Andrew Wyeth paintings Alvaro Raking Hay and The Corner on the occasion of the Administration’s 40th Anniversary.
1986 — The Wyeths: A Father and His Family, Smithsonian Institution and WETA-TV, 1986.
“Andrew Wyeth’s Secret Paintings”, Jeffrey Schaire. Art & Antiques, September. When the Helga Collection was made public in August, the story was simultaneously featured on the covers of both Time and Newsweek.
1987 — An American Vision: Three Generations of Wyeth Art, an exhibition featuring the work of Wyeth, his father N. C., and his son Jamie opened on March 11 at the Academy of the Arts of the USSR in Leningrad. This exhibition toured five countries before it closed at the Brandywine River Museum, Chadds Ford, PA in November, 1988.
Andrew Wyeth: The Helga Pictures, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, May 24 – September 27. The exhibition traveled to Boston, Houston, San Francisco, and Brooklyn before closing in September 1989.
Walt Anderson, whom Wyeth had painted in Maine from the time he was a young man, died on July 31.
1989 — John McCoy, Wyeth’s brother-in-law, died on July 6.
1990 — Nathaniel Convers Wyeth, brother of Andrew, died on July 4.
Awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by President Bush at White House ceremony on October 24, the first visual artist to receive the honor.
1992 — Andrew Wyeth, Gallerie Forni, Bologna, Italy, March 28 – April 28.
1993 — The Olson House, given to the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland in 1991, is opened for seasonal public tours.
1994 — Carolyn Wyeth, sister of Andrew, died March 1.
1995 — Andrew Wyeth: Autobiography, Aichi Prefectural Museum, Nagoya, February 3 – April 2; Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, April 15 – June 4; Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art, Fukushima-City, June 6 – July 16; Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, Missouri, September 24 – November 26.
Andrew Wyeth Self-Portrait: Snow Hill, Bo Bartlett, director and Betsy James Wyeth, producer.
1996 — Awarded honorary membership in the Royal Academy of London in May.
Andrew Wyeth: A Secret Life, Richard Meryman. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
1997 — Henriette Wyeth Hurd, Andrew’s eldest sister, died in April, at age 89.
The Olson Collection, the body of work done in preparation for Wind From the Sea, Christina’s World, and several other well-known works, is acquired by the Marunuma Art Park in Asaka, Japan.
Anna Kuerner died on November 28.
1998 — Unknown Terrain: Landscapes of Andrew Wyeth opened at Whitney Museum of American Art. Selections from this exhibition also traveled to the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.
The Wyeth Study Center opens at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine. Its inaugural exhibit was Wondrous Strange – The Wyeth Tradition: Howard Pyle, N.C. Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth, James Wyeth.
2001 — Andrew Wyeth: Close Friends, Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, Mississippi, February 3 – May 13; Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, South Carolina, June 6 – August 26; Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences, Savannah, Georgia, September 13 – December 31.
2004 — Kuerner Farm is seasonally opened for public tours through the Brandywine River Museum of Art.
2005 — Ann Wyeth McCoy, Andrew’s youngest sister, died on November 10 at age 90.
The retrospective Andrew Wyeth: Memory and Magic opened at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, November 12.
2006 — Memory and Magic is shown at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, March 29 – July 16.
2007 — Received National Medal of Arts from President George W. Bush, November 15.
2008 — Emotion and Creation, Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan, November 8 – December 23; Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Nagoya, Japan, January 4 – March 8, 2009; Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art, Fukushima, Japan, March 17 – May 10, 2009.
2009 — The artist died in his sleep on January 16.
2011 — Olson House and Kuerner Farm are designated as National Historic Landmarks
The Wyeths: Three Generations of American Art opens at the Mona Bismarck Foundation in Paris and ran November 10 – February 11, 2012.
2012 — The exhibition Andrew Wyeth In China opened in Beijing on April 14. It was also shown in Hong Kong before a New York City venue.
The artist’s studio is opened to the public through the Brandywine River Museum of Art. The building was given to the museum by the artist’s widow in 2010.
2013 — Michael Palin in Wyeth’s World, BBC Scotland, 2013.
2014 — The Andrew Wyeth Studio is designated a National Historic Landmark.
Andrew Wyeth: Looking Out, Looking In is on view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, May 4 – November 30, 2014.
Rethinking Andrew Wyeth, David Cateforis. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014.
2015-2016 — Wyeth: Andrew and Jamie in the Studio, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO, November 8, 2015. February 7, 2016; Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain, March 1 – June 19, 2016.
2017 — The artist’s 100th birthday on July 12th is marked by several exhibitions and catalogues as well as the release of US postage stamps featuring 12 of his best-known paintings.
