Fairy Cove, Port Clyde

The lush, loose brushwork of this painting demonstrates N. C. Wyeth’s growing range of styles in the 1920s. Painting over a 1921 illustration for The Ladies Home Journal, Wyeth casts off the business of commercial illustration for a much more personal painting done during a summer spent with his family in Maine. The tall spindly pines block the view of the beach beyond, which the Wyeth children called Fairy Cove. The glints of sunlight filtering through the trees enliven the foreground and contrast with the hazy atmosphere of the background.