Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
They were now fighting above the knees in the spume and bubble of the breakers
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1916
Dimensions:
40 1/8 × 32 in. (101.9 × 81.3 cm)
Brandywine River Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. S. Hallock du Pont, Jr., 1992
Accession number: 92.8.2
Research Number: NCW: 239
InscribedUpper left: N C WYETH (underlined)
ProvenanceCharles Scribner's Sons, New York, NY, 1916-1975; [Frank E. Fowler]; Collection of Mr. and Mrs. S. Hallock du Pont, Jr., 1975-1991
Exhibition HistoryChadds Ford, PA, 1976(1); Princeton, NJ, 1977, no. 19; Chadds Ford, PA, 1978; Chadds Ford, PA, 1990(1); Easton, MD, Academy of the Arts, "America's Storytellers: N. C. Wyeth and Howard Pyle", Dec. 2, 1999 - Jan. 22, 2000
References
Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 219; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.613, p. 325
Curatorial RemarksThe Brandywine River Museum holds the unillustrated 1915 Scribner's edition of The Black Arrow which the artist read to prepare for this commission, with notes on the endsheets and markings throughout (NCWS.95.163).
"I spent some of the time in the [New York Public] library looking up medieval data concerning my forthcoming books...." (NCW to ANW, 2/26/1916, WFA). The artist wrote to his mother in early March 1916, "The medieval period is gradually drawing me down into its tremendous confusion of customs, costumes and its singular spirit. I feel all pent up with the crowding impressions of an age rich in picturesqueness but black with infamy. The history of those times is after all rather suffocating...my head is clogged with long-bows, spears, salets, doublets, mail, quarter-staffs, jousting bouts, ferries, skerries, and moats..." (WFA).
"I spent some of the time in the [New York Public] library looking up medieval data concerning my forthcoming books...." (NCW to ANW, 2/26/1916, WFA). The artist wrote to his mother in early March 1916, "The medieval period is gradually drawing me down into its tremendous confusion of customs, costumes and its singular spirit. I feel all pent up with the crowding impressions of an age rich in picturesqueness but black with infamy. The history of those times is after all rather suffocating...my head is clogged with long-bows, spears, salets, doublets, mail, quarter-staffs, jousting bouts, ferries, skerries, and moats..." (WFA).
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Rick Echelmeyer, 1999