The Victorious Allies
Wyeth, Newell Convers, American painter, illustrator, 1882-1945
1919
oil on canvas
Gift of the Bank of Delaware, 1989


Newell Convers Wyeth was born into a family whose acquaintances included such luminaries as Longfellow and Thoreau. Over the objection of his father but with loving encouragement from his mother, N.C. decided on a career in art and came to Wilmington to study with Howard Pyle. He moved to Chadds Ford in 1906 and established an attachment to the region that most of the Wyeth offspring would share. He became a well-known illustrator of books, magazines, newspapers, etc. While his subject matter was often imposed upon him, he relished American motifs such as the Wild West. Influenced by his reverence for nature and the American landscape, he pursued a parallel career in easel painting that concentrated on his immediate surroundings. Although he did exhibit those paintings and had a modest success with them, his main reputation rests on his accomplishments as an illustrator

When the United States entered World War I, Charles Dana Gibson chaired a committee to organize artists' and illustrators' contributions to the effort. Some served as combat artists, others as camouflage experts and many designed posters and advertising for the committee. Here we see Wyeth's rich color and sense of design celebrating the armistice.

Wyeth's cover design treated the theme of allied unity by showing Belgian, American, French, British and Italian troops surmounted by the Statue of Liberty.