Andrew Wyeth Chambered Nautilus Painting

Title: Chambered Nautilus
Artist: Andrew Wyeth
Painted: 1956
Medium: Painting / Print / Watercolor

About Andrew Wyeth Chambered Nautilus Painting

Painted in the summer of 1956 during the last illness of Mrs. Wyeth's mother. The invalid could look out from her bed into the sunshine on the sea. She kept a little basket by her bed, to hold her Bible, pencils and the other little things that were her life. In the late afternoon she would open the door and the wind from the river would blow the curtains. "I did the picture right there in the room," the artist said, "and she would talk to me about her childhood in Connecticut. She was a great woman, one of those people who never grow old. It was a very touching experience. I never painted her head close-up and have always regretted that. But Betsy is very like her and there is a great deal of her in Maga's Daughter" (No.221). Painted in Mrs. Merle James' bedroom, Broad Cove Farm, Cushing.

Tempera 25 x 48 inches