Robert Wylie (artist)

This article is about the American artist. For the Scottish physician, see Robert Crichton Wyllie.

For the New Zealand cricketer, see Robert Wylie (cricketer).

The Models of Pont-Aven, c. 1870, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Robert Wylie (1839 - February 4, 1877), American artist, was born in the Isle of Man and relocated with his parents to the United States as a child.

Wylie studied in the schools of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, later serving a curator. In 1860, he helped found the Philadelphia Sketch Club, now one of the nation's oldest artists' clubs. His early work as a sculptor in Philadelphia is little known, with only a few works positively attributed to him.

In 1863, the directors of the Pennsylvania Academy sent Wylie to France to study. He went to Pont-Aven, Brittany, in the early 1860s, where he remained until his death there in 1877. He painted Breton peasants and scenes in the history of Brittany; among his important works was a large canvas, "The Death of a Vendean Chief," now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. He won a medal of the second class at the Paris Salon of 1872.

References

Attribution

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Wylie, Robert". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.