“ The luminosity and clearness of drawing is preserved , yet a certain greasy quality of the yolk gives a “ fat ” oily effect . Drying is instantaneous , and superimposed brush strokes are easily made .”
Reginald Marsh , “ Smoke Hounds ,” 1934
the Northwest School in Seattle , also began mixing eggs with their pigments .
Although egg tempera historically has appealed to finicky , hard-edged painters , it can be applied loosely . Reginald Marsh ( 1898-1954 ) wrote in his notebook in 1929 , “ Met Tom Benton … Comes up to my studio and shows me how to paint with eggs — fortunate event .” He later wrote that , “ It opened up a new world to me . Egg is a fine ‘ draughtsman ’ s ’ vehicle and very easy to handle . The luminosity and clearness of drawing is preserved , yet a certain greasy quality of the yolk gives a ‘ fat ’ oily effect . Drying is instantaneous , and superimposed brush strokes are easily made … I put egg yolk on a kind of belt line production for a dozen years and chucked oil forever .” His left-wing politics , like his blurry brush technique , were the polar opposite of Benton ’ s . “ Smokehounds ,” from 1934 , depicts a man in New York ’ s Bowery who has had too much “ Smoke ,” a cheap alcohol product popular with street people . Marsh ’ s colors are muted and his edges ragged , fitting with the depressing subject matter .
Although Marsh won great acclaim for his social realist paintings in tempera , he grew disenchanted with the medium by 1939 . “ I ’ m through with tempera and egg yolk ,” he wrote . “ It gets a painting all gummed up .”
By far , the most famous artist to work in egg tempera was Andrew Wyeth ( 1917-2009 ). He had begun as a fantastically successful watercolorist , whose first solo show in New York at 18 had sold out , but by the 1940s he began to worry that his work had become too slick , too facile . He felt the need to slow down with a new medium . His father , N . C . Wyeth ( 1882-1945 ), had experimented with egg tempera when he was introduced to it by his pupil ( and future son-in-law ) Peter Hurd ( 1904-1984 ). Hurd learned to make his own pigments from Cennini ’ s handbook and found it much more suited than oil to representing the landscapes of his home in New Mexico . Soon N . C ., Andrew , and Peter Hurd ’ s wife Henriette Wyeth ( 1907-1997 ), were producing some of their best work in tempera . Andrew ’ s son Jamie ( born 1946 ), unlike his father , eventually returned to oil paint , but he has also worked extensively in tempera . The medium will always be associated in the minds of art historians with the Wyeth family .
Hurd ’ s crosshatched sunsets are especially beautiful . His work caught the eye of President Lyndon Johnson , who , in 1967 , chose Hurd to paint his official White House portrait .
Hurd had done portraits before , although he preferred landscapes . A typical Peter Hurd portrait called for some 30 hours of posing . He knew the President of the United States wouldn ’ t sit still for that , but he hoped for a little more time than he got . The one time the President did pose for him , he fell asleep . When Johnson saw Hurd ’ s drawing , he said it looked like “ an old drunk .” Hurd was forced to work from photographs , a practice he never approved of .
He labored on the painting for 400 hours , using the hands of a rancher friend to stand in for Johnson ’ s . The result should , by all rights , have pleased the President . Looking heroic and considerably younger than he did
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