Artist:
Andrew Wyeth
(American, 1917 - 2009)
Chestnut Tree
Alternate Title(s):Kuerner Farm
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1933
Dimensions:
30 × 33 in. (76.2 × 83.8 cm)
Accession number: 2017.5
Copyright: © 2024 Wyeth Foundation for American Art / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Label Copy:
Beginning in the 1930s and continuing through much of his long career, Wyeth obsessively painted the Chadds Ford farm run by Karl Kuerner, a WWI German soldier who moved to the United States in the mid-1920s. Wyeth was fascinated by Kuerner’s war experience and the two formed a relationship that would last until the farmer’s death in 1979. Wyeth was just sixteen years old when this painting—set on the Kuerner farm—was completed.
Curatorial RemarksOne signature is not by Andrew Wyeth according to note written by Andrew Wyeth in file. AML in july 2022: Although Wyeth signed and dated it in left corner as 1930, the file indicates that the Wyeth office believes it could not be earlier than 1933 based on the black books (noted by 7/03 by KB) and because AW didn't start training with NC until he was 15 years old.