ANDREW WYETH (American, 1917-2009)
Graphite sketch on Strathmore paper
ca. 1960
Signed to the lower right
Inscription to the verso "#04206"
Sheet size: 14.25" x 22.75"
Framed size: 22" x 30.5"

A landscape oriented sketch of a man in repose, frequent Wyeth model Tom Clark. Clark was a farmer and fellow resident of Chester County, Pennsylvania. Wyeth and Clark were friends far beyond the artist-model relationship, Wyeth having written at one point about Clark the following: "His voice is gentle, his wit keen, and his wisdom enormous." This work was almost certainly one of more than 50 watercolors and pencil drawings Wyeth made of Clark in or around 1960. The series of studies, with Clark in varying poses of rest or contemplation, amounted to the groundwork for the Wyeth masterpiece "That Gentleman," (Dallas Museum of Art) which featured the side profile of a seated Clark in a dimly lit setting.

Provenance: The sketch descends directly in the family of Newton O. Belt (1899-1989), of Kentucky and southeastern Pennsylvania, who received the sketch as a gift from Wyeth. An engineer by trade, Belt was a hobbyist photographer and artist. Work took him to Pennsylvania where he settled as a neighbor of Wyeth. Belt and Wyeth became friends in the 1950's, with Wyeth having inspired Belt's painting hobby (Louisville Courier Journal, July 1, 1988) and Belt turning his camera on Wyeth as the artist worked. An archive of original and unpublished negatives, taken by Belt, that capture intimate moments of Andrew Wyeth in his studio at work on a number of paintings, is offered in this same sale, as well as three small original works executed by Wyeth and given to Belt.

Condition: Moderate and even toning. Some waving to the paper.