Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The Wreck of the "Covenant"
It was the spare yard I had got hold of, and I was amazed to see how far I had travelled from the brig
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1913
Dimensions:
40 3/8 × 32 1/4 in. (102.6 × 81.9 cm)
Brandywine River Museum of Art, Bequest of Mrs. Russell G. Colt, 1986
Accession number: 86.7.8
Label Copy:
N. C. Wyeth had the masterly ability to ferret out the most dramatic turns of a story, and then translate the verbal into the pictorial with a focused intensity. In Kidnapped, Stevenson describes how the sea sweeps David Balfour away from the Covenant; Wyeth twists the boy’s body toward the floundering brig, focusing the viewer’s attention on the drama of a shipwreck at sea. The contrast of the dark water and ship with the brilliant white spray rivets the eye and mind on the impending disaster, heightening the level of suspense.
Wyeth was a great admirer of Winslow Homer, who died in 1910. With its broadly brushed seascape, the artist took his inspiration from Homer and paid tribute to the recently deceased American master.
N. C. Wyeth had the masterly ability to ferret out the most dramatic turns of a story, and then translate the verbal into the pictorial with a focused intensity. In Kidnapped, Stevenson describes how the sea sweeps David Balfour away from the Covenant; Wyeth twists the boy’s body toward the floundering brig, focusing the viewer’s attention on the drama of a shipwreck at sea. The contrast of the dark water and ship with the brilliant white spray rivets the eye and mind on the impending disaster, heightening the level of suspense.
Wyeth was a great admirer of Winslow Homer, who died in 1910. With its broadly brushed seascape, the artist took his inspiration from Homer and paid tribute to the recently deceased American master.
Research Number: NCW: 171
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined); on reverse of canvas, not in NCW's hand and upside down: COPYRIGHT CHARLES SCRIBNER'S AND SONS
ProvenanceCharles Scribner's Sons, New York, NY; Russell G. Colt, New York, NY; Brian R. Gray; Mrs. Russell G. Colt, New York, NY
Exhibition HistoryHarrisburg, PA, 1965, no. 97; Chadds Ford, PA, 1972, no. 67; Chadds Ford, PA, 1987(2), p. 201 no. 27, illus. p. 99, and see also p. 82; Chadds Ford, PA, 1990 (1); Rockland, ME, 1998, p. 165 no. 84, illus. in color p. 84; Easton, MD, Academy of the Arts, "America's Storytellers: N. C. Wyeth and Howard Pyle", Dec. 2, 1999 - Jan. 22, 2000; Akron, OH, Akron Museum of Art, June 15 - Sept. 1, 2002, and Lawrence, KS, Spencer Museum of Art, Sept. 21 - Nov. 17, 2002, "N. C. Wyeth from the Brandywine River Museum Collection"; Harrisburg, PA, State Museum of Pennsylvania, Inaugural Exhibit of Pennsylvania Arts, Jan. 20 - Feb. 15, 2015; Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum of Art, June 22-Sept. 15, 2019 (and Portland, ME, Portland Museum of Art, Oct. 4, 2019-Jan. 12, 2020, and Cincinnati, OH, Taft Museum, Feb. 8-May 3, 2020), "N. C. Wyeth: New Perspectives," illus. p. 140
References
Reader's Digest Best Loved Books for Young Readers, illustrated vol. 7, p. 60(Pleasantville, NY: Reader's Digest Association, 1968);Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals, (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 219; Brandywine River Museum, Catalogue of the Collection, 1969-1989, (Chadds Ford, PA: Brandywine Conservancy, 1991), p. 206, illus. in color p. 208; David Michaelis, N. C. Wyeth A Biography, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), b/w illus. opposite contents page and in color after p. 148; Alexander Nemerov, "The Boy in the Bed: The Scene of Reading in N. C. Wyeth's Wreck of the "Covenant,"" The Art Bulletin, vol. LXXXVIII, no. 1 (March 2006), ps. 7-27; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.470, p. 270, 272; Michael Pitiot, Pirates (Grenoble: Editions Glénat, 2009), p. 49; Scott Bukatman, "The Poetics of Slumberland , Animated Spirits and the Animating Spirit" ( Berkeley, CA, University of California Press), pages 101-104; Randall C. Griffin, "Andrew Wyeth's Christina's World: Normalizing the "Abnormal Body,""published in Rethinking Andrew Wyeth, edited by David Cateforis, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2014, illus. p. 122; "From the Executive Director," Pennsylvania Heritage, vol. XLI, no. 3 (Summer, 2015), illus. p. 2;
Curatorial RemarksThis painting is an excellent example of N. C. Wyeth's ability to create an image that adds dramatic intensity to a story. In Kidnapped, Stevenson describes how the sea sweeps David Balfour away from the ship the Covenant. In the painting, Wyth twists the boy's body toward the background, focusing the viewer's attention on the floundering brig. The contrast of dark water and ship with brilliant white spray rivets the eye and mind on impending disaster, increasing the level of suspense.
Notes and insertions found in Wyeth's copy of "Bonnie Scotland Painted by Sutton Palmer" by A. R. Hope Moncrieff (A. & C. Black, 1912), suggest that the artist used this book (NCWS.95.608) as a visual resource for the Kidnapped paintings.
Notes and insertions found in Wyeth's copy of "Bonnie Scotland Painted by Sutton Palmer" by A. R. Hope Moncrieff (A. & C. Black, 1912), suggest that the artist used this book (NCWS.95.608) as a visual resource for the Kidnapped paintings.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:No credit on transparency