Sep 30, 2009 5:00 pm US/Eastern
Philadelphia Magazine: Growing Up Wyeth
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ―
Tall, blonde and electric. Victoria Wyeth, or "Vic" as she is known, is the last generation of Wyeths.
She's the only grandchild of the iconic American painter, Andrew Wyeth and a beam of light that illuminates the galleries of the Brandywine River Museum.
Looking at a famous painting by her Uncle Jamie Wyeth, she enthuses over the zipper on a leather jacket.
"In this family, you don't become an artist. You're born with this talent. Look at this zipper!"
A little further into the gallery, "Vic" helps you see what her great grandfather N.C. Wyeth created in the illustrations for Treasure Island.
"These pirates are not just sitting there twiddling their thumbs, they're running to you with blood and cutlasses."
She sighs with a wonder to visitors of the gallery that communicates a genuine awe, even though you know she's grown up with this art surrounding her.
If the Brandywine River Museum is the home to the Wyeth Family art, then Victoria Wyeth is its gatekeeper. She sees each painting with a joy and wonder that come from growing up Wyeth. And the legacy is illustrious.
Victoria Wyeth is the granddaughter of Andrew Wyeth, who died in January, the great-granddaughter of the renowned illustrator N.C. Wyeth and the niece of Jamie Wyeth.
Several days a week, Victoria steers visitors through the Wyeth art world. When she expressed interest in giving tours years ago, Victoria says she was handed every book written on her famous family. It took her three months to read everything.
The tour takes her to Andy's boyhood portrait, where he's holding a red fire engine as he sits for his father. She tells how Andy declared he too wanted to be a painter.
"'Daddy, I'll just die,' she quotes, 'if I have to go back to school.'"
Only in a family of artists can you come home and say that and have your father say, "'ok'."
Victoria speaks of her last conversation with Andy.
"I was asking him how he paints black in his water colors. He said, 'you don't just paint black, you build, you build the excitement.'"
Victoria Wyeth is exuberant as she explains her Uncle Jamie's new exhibit – The Seven Deadly Sins.
With imagination, Jamie Wyeth depicts the sins in a series of paintings with scavenging seagulls, representing human failings.
The paintings are on exhibit at the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford through November 22nd.
Victoria is a Harvard educated clinical psychologist who reveals in the memories of testing her first artistic adventure in photography. Her grandfather, Andy, was her subject.
She recalls him turning and striking a dramatic pose. "I said, what are you doing? And he said, 'quick, quick take the picture.' It was the first time I really saw Andrew Wyeth, you know, because he was always just Andy."
And continues to be Victoria's inspiration, as she cares for an artistic legacy she is emotionally compelled to share.
A story about Victoria Wyeth appears in the September Philadelphia Magazine.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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