Letter to William and Mary Phelps, page two
DateJanuary 27, 1957
Artist
Andrew Wyeth
(American painter, 1917–2009)
MediumGraphite and watercolor on paper
Dimensionssheet: 10 1/2 × 7 1/4 in. (26.7 × 18.4 cm)
Credit LineGift of Mary M. R. Phelps, 1968
Object number1968-20.1a
On View
Not on viewClassificationsDRAWING
Label TextKarl and Anna Kuerner emigrated from Germany in the 1920s and bought property a mile away from the Wyeths in Chadds Ford. In 1932, the fifteen-year-old Wyeth's painting of their farm was the first of over one thousand paintings, drawings and sketches of the Kuerners and their home that he has done. The Kuerners became accustomed to Wyeth coming in their door or sitting on their hillside, studying the forms and the changing sunlight and moonlight. Eventually they gave him a key to their house, where he sometimes left unfinished works for months before returning to them.Here Wyeth quickly sketched Karl Kuerner's farmhouse bathed in the dim, brownish-yellow light of an early winter morning. He writes, "I have been taking long walks over the winter hills, and just this morning I went over to Karl Kuerner's house. The house looked like this in the morning light." This sketch is an early study for the tempera painting titled "Brown Swiss" (1957, private collection). Kuerner's farmhouse is also the subject of the painting "First Snow" (Museum collection).
Physical/Intellectual
