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US President George W. Bush mourned the passing of the artist, who "captured America in his paintings of his native Pennsylvania and Maine."
Born on July 12, 1917 in Chadd's Ford, Wyeth, the youngest of five children of muralist and children's book illustrator Newell Convers Wyeth, was home-schooled by his parents -- including in art.
He held his first one-man show of watercolors, one of his favored media, at a gallery in New York when he was 20. The show was a sell-out.
His best-known paintings include "Christina's World," featuring a Wyeth family neighbor at their summer residence in Maine, and the Helga pictures, a compilation of tempera and dry brush paintings, watercolors and pencil studies of a Chadd's Ford neighbor, German-born Helga Testorf.
From 1971 to 1985, Wyeth created more than 240 works featuring Testorf without telling anyone, including his wife.
Wyeth's prints are said to have been popular with world leaders, such as former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and US president Dwight D. Eisenhower.
In his statement, Bush recalled how "Wyeth was no stranger to White House recognitions."
The popular artist received the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest US civilian award, from president John F. Kennedy in 1963, and in 1970 became the first living artist to have his work exhibited in the White House, when Richard Nixon was in office.
"In 1990, my father presented Mr. Wyeth the Congressional Gold Medal," Bush said.
"And in 2007, I awarded Mr. Wyeth the National Medal of Arts in recognition of his lifetime achievement and contribution to American arts and culture."
In 1977, Wyeth became the first American artist since John Singer Sargent to be elected to the French Academie des Beaux-Arts.
He was also an honorary member of the Soviet Academy of the Arts and the first living American artist to be elected to Britain's Royal Academy.
Wyeth is survived by his wife Betsey, whom he met in Maine when he was in his twenties, sons -- Nicholas, an art dealer, and James, a painter, and their wives, and a grand-daughter, Victoria.
The Brandywine River Museum plans to hold "a celebration of his life and art," but no date has been set yet.
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Image of US realist painter Andrew Wyeth, by Bruce Weber.
Born on July 12, 1917 in Chadd's Ford, Wyeth, the youngest of five children of muralist and children's book illustrator Newell Convers Wyeth, was home-schooled by his parents -- including in art.
He held his first one-man show of watercolors, one of his favored media, at a gallery in New York when he was 20. The show was a sell-out.
His best-known paintings include "Christina's World," featuring a Wyeth family neighbor at their summer residence in Maine, and the Helga pictures, a compilation of tempera and dry brush paintings, watercolors and pencil studies of a Chadd's Ford neighbor, German-born Helga Testorf.
From 1971 to 1985, Wyeth created more than 240 works featuring Testorf without telling anyone, including his wife.
Wyeth's prints are said to have been popular with world leaders, such as former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and US president Dwight D. Eisenhower.
In his statement, Bush recalled how "Wyeth was no stranger to White House recognitions."
The popular artist received the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest US civilian award, from president John F. Kennedy in 1963, and in 1970 became the first living artist to have his work exhibited in the White House, when Richard Nixon was in office.
"In 1990, my father presented Mr. Wyeth the Congressional Gold Medal," Bush said.
"And in 2007, I awarded Mr. Wyeth the National Medal of Arts in recognition of his lifetime achievement and contribution to American arts and culture."
In 1977, Wyeth became the first American artist since John Singer Sargent to be elected to the French Academie des Beaux-Arts.
He was also an honorary member of the Soviet Academy of the Arts and the first living American artist to be elected to Britain's Royal Academy.
Wyeth is survived by his wife Betsey, whom he met in Maine when he was in his twenties, sons -- Nicholas, an art dealer, and James, a painter, and their wives, and a grand-daughter, Victoria.
The Brandywine River Museum plans to hold "a celebration of his life and art," but no date has been set yet.
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Image of US realist painter Andrew Wyeth, by Bruce Weber.
