Newell Convers Wyeth

In 1902, N.C. (Newell Convers) Wyeth relocated to Wilmington, Delaware, where he attended the Howard Pyle School of Art, whose founder was an important illustration instructor setting many standards in the business. Wyeth also spent time at Pyle's summer school in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, where he eventually moved and created many important works. At the age of 21, with the encouragement of Pyle, he headed west to research what he had been portraying for years but had never seen. He collected clothing and artifacts that served as props for his paintings, later appearing on covers of The Saturday Evening Post. In 1906, Outing Magazine sponsored Wyeth's second trip to the west, where he researched mine engineering. In this same year, he accepted his highest number of commissions. He worked for Scribner's Magazine, Outing Magazine, Harper's Weekly, Harper's Monthly, Charles Scribner's Sons, and Houghton Mifflin Company. He also painted illustrations for more than 26 novels, including Treasure Island by Robert L. Stevenson, Robin Hood by Paul Creswick, and works by Mark Twain.

Wyeth's western paintings are filled with cowboys, Native Americans, and other characters of the western frontier. He had a wonderful sense of color and light and a great understanding of the Western culture and its inhabitants. The popularity of the illustrated magazine helped Wyeth's paintings become the framework for how people imagined the West.