N. C. Wyeth

Newell Convers Wyeth , known as N.160C. Wyeth, was an American artist and illustrator. He was the pupil of artist Howard Pyle and became one of Americas greatest illustrators. During his lifetime, Wyeth created over 3,000 paintings and illustrated 112 books,of them for Scribners, the Scribner Classics, which is the work for which he is best known. The first of these, Treasure Island, was one of his masterpieces and the proceeds paid for his studio. Wyeth was a realist painter just as the camera and photography began to compete with his craft. Sometimes seen as melodramatic, his illustrations were designed to be understood quickly. Wyeth, who was both a painter and an illustrator, understood the difference, and said in 1908, Painting and illustration cannot be mixedone cannot merge from one into the other.

Wyeth was born in Needham, Massachusetts. An ancestor, Nicholas Wyeth, a stonemason, came to Massachusetts from England in 1645. Later ancestors were prominent participants in the French and Indian Wars, the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the American Civil War, passing down rich oral histories and tradition to Wyeth and his family and providing subject matter for his art, which was deeply felt. His maternal ancestors came from Switzerland, and during his childhood, his mother was acquainted with literary giants Henry David Thoreau and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. His literary appreciation and artistic talents appear to have come from her.

Source: Wikipedia