Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
"The eight miners followed the treacherous trail cautiously, the wind whipping the red and blue into their faces."
Alternate Title(s):The Miners Followed the Treacherous Trail Cautiously, the Cold Wind Whipping Red and Blue into Their Faces; The Eight Miners Followed the Treacherous Trail; Treacherous Trail
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1906
Dimensions:
51 7/8 × 34 in. (131.8 × 86.4 cm)
Brandywine River Museum of Art, Museum purchase, 1994
Accession number: 94.11
Research Number: NCW: 329
InscribedLower right: N.C. WYETH (underlined) / 06; written on reverse of canvas: "The miners (obscured by stretcher)owld the treacherous / trail cautiously (obscured by stretcher) cold wind whipping / red and blue into their faces"; adhered to stretcher, (Knoedler's) label: 54804 PICTURE; adhered to frame, the following exhibition labels: Colorado Historical Society; Brandywine River Museum (Brandywine West); Brandywine River Museum (Visions of Winter); Brandywine River Museum (N. C. Wyeth's Wild West); South Dakota Art Museum; Brandywine River Museum (Brandywine Heritage Gallery)
ProvenanceThe artist; Mrs. N. C. Wyeth (and with Knoedler & Co., 1956 - 1968, #54804); Carolyn Wyeth
Exhibition HistoryNew York, NY, 1957, no. 37, as "Treacherous Trail"; Brookings, SD, 1973, no. 4; Greenville, SC, 1974, no. 44; Chadds Ford, PA, 1975; Princeton, NJ, 1977, no. 14, as "The Miners Followed the Treacherous Trail Cautiously, the Cold Wind Whipping Red and Blue into Their Faces"; Cody, WY, 1980, p. 57 no number, (p. 43 plate 24 labeled "The Treacherous Trail" in error); Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum, "Visions of Winter," Jan. 14 - March 11, 1984; Chadds Ford, PA, 1985; Chadds Ford, PA, 1990(2), p. 81 no. 19, as "The Eight Miners Followed the Treacherous Trail," illus. b/w p. 51; Burlington, VT, Shelburne Museum, "Wyeth Vertigo," June 22-Oct. 31, 2013, illus. p. 21, see also p. 26;
References
Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 268, illus. b/w p. 126; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.146, p. 149
Curatorial RemarksThe Snow Road commission hung over the artist during the summer of 1906, and it was only after Howard Pyle resigned as the art editor of McClure's and no longer commanded most of Wyeth's time that the young artist began on the series. He felt liberated from what he had come to see as Pyle's detrimental influence and tore into the work. After describing the painting to his mother he told her, "the fellows have all congratulated me on it which gratifies me exceedingly," pleased that his effort had been recognized by his fellow students who also felt betrayed by Pyle.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Rick Echelmeyer, 1996