Artist:
Carolyn Wyeth
(American, 1909 - 1994)
Mask of Keats
Alternate Title(s):Life Mask of Keats; Death Mask of Keats
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: ca. 1940
Dimensions:
38 1/4 × 43 1/4 in. (97.2 × 109.9 cm)
Accession number: 2003.10
Label Copy:
Throughout her career, Carolyn Wyeth painted the objects and places for which she felt the most affinity—her studio, its contents, and her surroundings in Chadds Ford. In this work, she pays homage to English Romantic poet John Keats (1795-1821), of whom she was a great admirer. Together, the roses and Keats’s death mask, placed carefully on the black cloth lying over the chair, read as symbols of both mourning and commemoration.
Throughout her career, Carolyn Wyeth painted the objects and places for which she felt the most affinity—her studio, its contents, and her surroundings in Chadds Ford. In this work, she pays homage to English Romantic poet John Keats (1795-1821), of whom she was a great admirer. Together, the roses and Keats’s death mask, placed carefully on the black cloth lying over the chair, read as symbols of both mourning and commemoration.
ProvenanceBrandywine River Museum Purchase 2003
Curatorial RemarksCalled to the studio of her father, N.C. Wyeth, for drawing lessons when she was a child, Carolyn Wyeth developed a lifelong devotion to the space, located only steps from the home where she grew up and spent most of her life. She studied with her father for nearly twenty years, longer than any of his other students. Eventually an addition was built to her father’s studio, where Carolyn could work on her own, though there was no doorway between the two studios. In the years following her father’s death, Carolyn took over his studio, running art classes in the space and using it as her own.
Mask of Keats, like many of Carolyn Wyeth’s paintings, depicts the familiar places and objects of her world. Rather than an identifiable vista or nearby building, Carolyn suggests the space of the studio, and perhaps the spirit of the artist who once inhabited it, by imaging common studio props. The life mask of the English romantic poet John Keats conjures a memorial mood—as do the individual roses, perhaps placed as tribute—while the glowing silhouette of the chair lends a magical air to the composition.
Mask of Keats, like many of Carolyn Wyeth’s paintings, depicts the familiar places and objects of her world. Rather than an identifiable vista or nearby building, Carolyn suggests the space of the studio, and perhaps the spirit of the artist who once inhabited it, by imaging common studio props. The life mask of the English romantic poet John Keats conjures a memorial mood—as do the individual roses, perhaps placed as tribute—while the glowing silhouette of the chair lends a magical air to the composition.