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Originally conceived as an illistration for Kenneth Roberts;s 1938 book Trending into Maine, Island Funeral developed into an independent composition. In this painting, N C Wyeth used an aerial view to depict people gathering for the funeral of the patriarch of a large and historic Maine lobstering family. Wyeth was inspired by the sight of boats arriving on the family island, each bearing mourners for 96-year-old Rufus Teel. While Wyeth had painted members of the Teel family on other occasions, this painting focuses not on specific individuals but rather on the rituals of the funeral. Like Wyeth himself, his gallerist Robert Macbeth saw the painting as a major achievement of Wyeth's career and insisted on its presence in Wyeth's first solo exhibition in New York in 1939.
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