Andrew Newell Wyeth, American, 1917-2009. Night Hauling,1944, tempera on Masonite. Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine. Gift of Mrs. Ernestine K. Smith, in memory of her husband, Burwell B. Smith. © Andrew Wyeth. Digital photography by Peter Siegel.
The 1944 Andrew Wyeth painting “Night Hauling,” owned by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, is causing a stir at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont, where it is currently featured in an exhibition called “Wyeth Vertigo.” Described in The Wall Street Journal as the show’s most memorable work, Wyeth’s eery painting depicts a poacher pulling up a lobster trap in the dead of night, lit only by the glow of tiny, bioluminescent creatures in the water.
Andrew Wyeth was the most famous member of a three-generation dynasty of artists, beginning with his father N. C. Wyeth and continuing today through his son Jamie Wyeth. “Wyeth Vertigo” features works from all three family members.
