Lincoln Kirstein's interests in art and literature were established at Harvard during the late 1920s. There, with fellow undergraduates, he founded the Harvard Society for Contemporary Art, which exhibited the work of cutting-edge artists, and Hound & Horn, a magazine that published the work of James Joyce and Gertrude Stein, among others. While more than thirty books and hundreds of articles on art, architecture, and literature bear Kirstein's name, he is perhaps best known for his pioneering efforts in the development of ballet in the United States. In 1933, he persuaded George Balanchine, the noted choreographer for the Diaghilev Ballet, to co-found the School of American Ballet. Kirstein, who wrote frequently about dance, also established the New York City Ballet Company and served as its as general director.

Jamie Wyeth was born into a well-known American artistic dynasty: his grandfather was illustrator N. C. Wyeth, and his father, Andrew Wyeth, is noted for his realistic figure studies and landscapes. He was trained largely by his aunt, the painter Henriette Wyeth Hurd. Kirstein and Andrew Wyeth were friends, and it was the latter who suggested that the impresario commission his sixteen-year-old son to paint his portrait.

Jamie Wyeth (born 1946)
Oil on canvas, 1965
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Bequest of Lincoln Kirstein
T/NPG.96.97.06
© Jamie Wyeth

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