Jamie Wyeth, the third generation of world-famous Wyeth artists, was shocked to discover a collection of drawings by his father, Andrew Wyeth, after his death in 2009, writes Bob Keyes for Colby News. 

The iconic artist used a family friends’ attic in Chadds Ford as an occasional studio where he did a series of pencil drawings in the early 1990s where he imagined his own funeral and depicted the faces of mourners. 

“Death had always intrigued him, and it terrified him, as all of us,” said Jamie Wyeth. 

He said his father became more focused on themes of death and mortality after his father, N.C. Wyeth, was killed in 1945 when his car was hit by a train. His death occurred near the Chadds Ford landmark known as Kuerner’s Hill, which Andrew Wyeth later often included in his paintings. 

Andrew Wyeth also always regretted not painting his father after his death, and asked his son to paint him when he dies. 

“I went in right after he died and sat there for three hours,” recalled Jamie Wyeth. “I haven’t revisited the drawings because it was a terrible thing at the time, but it was amazing.” 

Read the entire interview in Colby News.