During his lifetime, N.C. Wyeth created more than 3,000 paintings and illustrated 112 books. My father collected many of Wyeth’s books. As a child, I would flip through the pages just to see the magnificent illustrations.
The Giant was commissioned by the Westtown School class of 1910. Westtown is in West Chester, PA, near the Brandywine museum, which houses a great deal of the Wyeth family’s paintings. The painting pays tribute to a classmate William Engle, who died in the prime of his life. Engle studied art both with N.C. Wyeth and at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He died on his 25th birthday from tuberculosis. Engle’s spent summers at Beach Haven, New Jersey, where the Wyeth family also made visits. The children in the scene are N.C. Wyeth's five children (including blond Andrew standing nearest the sea), with Engle represented by the young man in the white hat. Wyeth knew of Engle's love for the sea and children at play on the beach. In The Giant, one sees the imagination of the child. Taking the shape of a great cloud to build the form of the Giant.
The painting was presented to Westtown on Alumni Day in June 1923. It was hung in the lunch room, and remains there to this day. When my youngest daughter was a child, I hung this illustration in her room. My grandsons are or were Westtown students. My oldest daughter works there. She says, “most of the alumni have a print of The Giant at home or in the office.”
To see original: https://bit.ly/3wHxVAR
Inspired by: N.C. Wyeth, ‘The Giant’
