Name recognition is not a problem for Andrew Wyeth. First, there's the family dynasty: Father N.C. Wyeth was the most famous illustrator of his time, and son Jamie is also a painter. Then, you've got the scandal, courtesy of The Helga Pictures, a series of paintings Wyeth made using neighbor Helga Testorf as a model (often nude)—that were supposedly a secret even to his wife. The lurid rumors flew, and Helga's painted alter ego made the cover of Time in 1986. Combine all that with accessible subject matter—warmly lit, soft depictions of rural living and seaside tranquility—and Wyeth became a household name and poster favorite (Christina's World, anyone?).

It's critical recognition that has sometimes eluded the reclusive painter. Wyeth's been called a "kitsch-meister," and his work's been accused of possessing a "scatological palette." Still, he has toiled away, with no dearth of retrospectives as a result. The traveling one just about to open at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, "Andrew Wyeth: Memory and Magic," will surely be a hit—and rightly so.

For more than 70 years, Wyeth has quietly worked in Chadds Ford, where he still lives (and where the whole Wyeth family oeuvre can be seen at the Brandywine River Museum). He's represented town life (Public Sale), haunting interiors that always look like someone just left the room, and German immigrant neighbors like the Kuerners, whose farmhouse he painted many times, in works like Groundhog Day and Winter, 1946 (detail, pictured). "Magic," which will feature more than 100 works, showcases Wyeth's skillful egg tempera painting and his translucent use of light and color. Especially alluring is the recent work, like 2002's futuristic Otherworld, which features a woman gazing out of an airplane window; it's all gloss, modern interiors and reflected light—a far cry from the bucolic landscapes. But then you see, in the bottom left, what the woman is looking at: a couple of weather-beaten white farmhouses peeking from behind the clouds.

"Andrew Wyeth: Memory & Magic" opens Wed., March 29, runs through July 16, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 26th St. and the Parkway, 215-763-8100.