Andrew Wyeth's Snow Hill

The rich context behind one of Andrew Wyeth’s most beloved and mysterious late paintings.
 
Perhaps nowhere else is Andrew Wyeth’s highly distinctive style more palpable, or moving, than in Snow Hill. His masterful tempera painting of 1989 provides a visual and poetic summary of the Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, residents who had provided artistic inspiration at key points in Wyeth’s career. With the figures depicted in a snowy landscape high above Kuerner Farm, a property of great personal significance to the painter, this enigmatic composition resonates with an elegiac air. Among Wyeth’s most popular works, Snow Hill in some ways encapsulates the spirit of his entire career. James H. Duff, a close acquaintance of the artist for more than three decades, invites an expansive reading of the work, including the wide-ranging art historical influences on this singular American artist.
 
Published in association with the Brandywine River Museum of Art, Chadds Ford, PAThomas Padon is the James H. Duff Director of the Brandywine River Museum of Art, Chadds Ford, PA. James H. Duff is former executive director of the Brandywine Conservancy and Museum of Art