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Lot Essay
This work will be included in Betsy James Wyeth's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work.
The present work depicts Andrew Wyeth’s neighbor Fred Strand, who worked and lived with his wife Sarah in the historic John Chad house, which was built in 1725 and serves as the namesake for Wyeth’s hometown of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. Showing him here in the marsh below Chad house, Wyeth fondly recalled of Strand, "Each Spring Fred Strand whitewashed the rail fence that encloses my studio half-acre and touched up the stuccoed walls. At the end of the day, after a little nip, I would be rewarded by a 'soft shoe' dance to the tune of 'Jubba dis and jubba dat/Jubba catch the yellow cat,' ending with a buck and a wing." (Andrew Wyeth: Close Friends, exhibition catalogue, Jackson, Mississippi, 2001, p. 20)
The present work depicts Andrew Wyeth’s neighbor Fred Strand, who worked and lived with his wife Sarah in the historic John Chad house, which was built in 1725 and serves as the namesake for Wyeth’s hometown of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. Showing him here in the marsh below Chad house, Wyeth fondly recalled of Strand, "Each Spring Fred Strand whitewashed the rail fence that encloses my studio half-acre and touched up the stuccoed walls. At the end of the day, after a little nip, I would be rewarded by a 'soft shoe' dance to the tune of 'Jubba dis and jubba dat/Jubba catch the yellow cat,' ending with a buck and a wing." (Andrew Wyeth: Close Friends, exhibition catalogue, Jackson, Mississippi, 2001, p. 20)