Orca Bates

Artist Jamie Wyeth (born 1946)

Date1990

MediumOil on panel

Dimensions40 x 40 in. (101.6 x 101.6 cm)
Framed: 45 5/8 × 45 5/8 × 1 3/4 in.

ClassificationsPainting

Credit LinePromised Gift to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas

Signedl.r., in light gray paint: J. Wyeth

On View

On view

Label TextJamie Wyeth paints realistic scenes inspired by the places he lives and works: coastal Maine and the Pennsylvania countryside. The boy in this painting, Orca Bates, lived on a small island near Monhegan, Maine, where Wyeth maintains a studio. Growing up during the early 1990s, he became one of Wyeth's favorite models, appearing in many paintings from this period. The boy's name derives from that of the killer whale, connecting him with the surrounding sea.

Looking still wet from a swim, Orca sits on a seaman's chest, serious and focused, with his thin limbs tanned from the sun. The tilted composition suggests the effect of being inside the hull of a ship, rolling through a turbulent sea–an allusion, perhaps, to the fleeting, sometimes awkward transition into adulthood. The boy's androgynous features and digital wristwatch contrast with his rustic surroundings. A whale jawbone (a gift to Wyeth from his wife) looms behind Bates, appearing to pin him to the hard metal seat.
Inscribedc.l., in red: Orca Bates