Artist:
Jamie Wyeth
(American, b. 1946)
Angus
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1974
Dimensions:
52 1/2 × 58 5/8 in. (133.4 × 148.9 cm)
Accession number: 2008.2
Copyright: © Jamie Wyeth / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Curatorial RemarksJamie Wyeth discusses his herd of Black Angus cattle: I bought the entire herd, just because I knew I wanted to paint them. And they were wonderful models once I figured out a system for keeping their attention. My farmer feeds them out of a truck, and I would go out into the field with my easel and set it up inside the truck. All the cattle would come around and look right up at me; every half hour I kicked out a bale of hay to keep them there. They all had numbers around the necks and #78 was nuts, she’d go right after you and was much more dangerous than a bull. One day, I was drawing in the field, totally lost in thought, and I all of a sudden felt this hot breath on the back of my neck. I turned my head around slowly and all I could see was #78’s tag. I flew over the fence and that scared me. The painting was finished. -Interview with Jamie Wyeth by Glenn Plaskin from M magazine, August, 1984