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Trodden weed

Andrew Wyeth • Painting, 1951, 50.8×46.4 cm
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About the artwork
This artwork was added since it is referred to in the materials below
Art form: Painting
Subject and objects: Landscape
Technique: Tempera
Materials: Wood
Date of creation: 1951
Size: 50.8×46.4 cm
Artwork in selections: 9 selections

Description of the artwork «Trodden weed»

"Trampled Weeds" - a rather unusual self-portrait of Andrew Wyeth. It was written under very extraordinary circumstances, which were preceded by an eight-hour operation, cardiac arrest and the appearance of Albrecht Durer.

In 1950, just two years after painting Wyeth's most famous painting, Christina's World, the artist was diagnosed with bronchiectasis. This disease of the pulmonary tract can lead to death in the long term, so a complex operation was required to remove part of the lung. During the surgery, cardiac arrest occurred, and Wyeth later said that at that moment his idol, the German painter Albrecht Durer, appeared to him.

He walked towards him with an outstretched hand and Wyeth was also going to him, but almost immediately recoiled back, like Durer. The artist survived, but his shoulder muscles were severely damaged during the operation and it was unclear if he would be able to paint again. While Wyeth was recovering from his illness, he took long walks in the surrounding hills of his native Chadds Ford. During these outings, he preferred to wear old boots that had previously belonged to an American illustrator Howard Pyle, teacher and mentor of his father.

The monotonous winter landscape with an endless sea of dead grass contributed to reflections on the transience of life and the inevitability of death. Wyeth recounted how he was suddenly struck by the realization that life was dying under his feet. He tramples the grass with his boots, killing living creatures in it, without even knowing it. The artist hastened to transform difficult feelings into a creative process, although his physical condition did not allow him to work fully: his mutilated hand was held by a bandage fixed to the ceiling.

Partial disability did not prevent Wyeth from applying hundreds of painstaking strokes of tempera to the picture. He preferred it to oil, and biographer Richard Meriman - author of Andrew Wyeth: The Secret Life - believed that the tempera colors were entirely consistent with the artist's temperament:The watercolor was too open to reveal his impetuosity. You can just see how his brush flies ... everything is in motion. Too frank, too impetuous painting, almost ferocious expression of feelings. Tempera is done in small thin strokes, very precise and detailed. For Wyeth, this meticulousness was the compressor of the senses. The deceptively smooth cover of tempera is like a lid on a cauldron, from which emotions are torn ".

It is noteworthy that in the painting "Trampled Weeds" Wyeth is observing himself as if from the side. The high line of the horizon, which makes the space of the picture almost chamber and claustrophobic, contrasts with the hero's wide, dashing stride and the fluttering floors of his outerwear, similar to an old camisole. Memories of the artist's vision during the operation come to mind, and the question arises: who did Wyeth actually depict on the eerie monochrome canvas - was it not death that came to him in the image of Albrecht Durer? At that time, she left with nothing and returned for the artist almost sixty years later.

Natalia Azarenko
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