Photo By Gail

This 1976 oil on canvas portrait of artist Jamie Wyeth is one half of a “Portrait Exchange,” which includes a portrait of Warhol done by Wyeth. Warhol’s half of the portrait exchange presents a brooding and handsome young artist, posing as if for a Hollywood head shot or mimicking Wyeth’s own Portrait of John F. Kennedy. The two artists styles could not be more opposite, and yet they each shared a dedicated work ethic.

While Wyeth created many detailed studies of Warhol to compose his panel painting, Warhol prepared by taking numerous Polaroid snapshots of Wyeth — more, he claimed, than for any of his other subjects at the time. Drawn to celebrity and fame, Warhol frequently surrounded himself with young artists for inspiration, and Wyeth’s natural talent and artistic lineage (not to mention, according to Warhol, his “cuteness”) especially appealed to him.

Photographed in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.