Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The Twentieth Century and the First The Dramatic Contrast of an English Tank in the Streets of Jerusalem
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1918
Dimensions:
38 5/16 × 31 1/4 in. (97.3 × 79.4 cm)
Brandywine River Museum of Art, Bequest of Carolyn Wyeth, 1996
Accession number: 96.1.18
Label Copy:
Despite Howard Pyle’s advice to paint what you know, N. C. Wyeth turned down several offers and military commissions to travel to the battlefields of Europe during World War I. Without the actual experience, he compensated by amassing a large collection of photographs, newspaper clippings and artifacts pertaining to the war. He also sought out returning veterans for their first-hand accounts.
In a January 1918 letter to his mother, Wyeth wrote, "It has been a busy, busy week. In the past eight days I shall have all but completed two pictures (of a set of four) for Red Cross Magazine depicting the British occupation of Jerusalem, trying to bring out dramatically the sharp contrast of the new as against the old…[in one], a regiment of British soldiers—or possibly a "tank" (if I can find out authentically that these modern leviathans entered the Sacred city) passing under the Arch de Ecce Homo, the arch under which Christ passed bearing the cross!" (NCW to Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth, Jan. 26, 1918, Wyeth Family Archives) Although the magazine published the four pictures, Wyeth later complained that the pictures weren’t as well received as he had hoped. "The pictures lacked sensationalism in its cheaper form is my conclusion, and to that extent shot over the heads of the magazine men." He aptly summed up the advances in information technology with the prescient comment that the art editors "are comparing art with moving pictures…trying to do the impossible and to create that obvious and striking sensationalism of the cinemetograph in their magazine."
Despite Howard Pyle’s advice to paint what you know, N. C. Wyeth turned down several offers and military commissions to travel to the battlefields of Europe during World War I. Without the actual experience, he compensated by amassing a large collection of photographs, newspaper clippings and artifacts pertaining to the war. He also sought out returning veterans for their first-hand accounts.
In a January 1918 letter to his mother, Wyeth wrote, "It has been a busy, busy week. In the past eight days I shall have all but completed two pictures (of a set of four) for Red Cross Magazine depicting the British occupation of Jerusalem, trying to bring out dramatically the sharp contrast of the new as against the old…[in one], a regiment of British soldiers—or possibly a "tank" (if I can find out authentically that these modern leviathans entered the Sacred city) passing under the Arch de Ecce Homo, the arch under which Christ passed bearing the cross!" (NCW to Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth, Jan. 26, 1918, Wyeth Family Archives) Although the magazine published the four pictures, Wyeth later complained that the pictures weren’t as well received as he had hoped. "The pictures lacked sensationalism in its cheaper form is my conclusion, and to that extent shot over the heads of the magazine men." He aptly summed up the advances in information technology with the prescient comment that the art editors "are comparing art with moving pictures…trying to do the impossible and to create that obvious and striking sensationalism of the cinemetograph in their magazine."
Research Number: NCW: 117
InscribedUpper left: N. C. WYETH (underlined) / TO CHARLIE / SEDGWICK (last two lines partially painted out); on reverse, (Knoedler's) label : NO. 1932 / PICTURE
ProvenanceThe artist; gift to Charlie Sedgewick; the artist; Mrs. N. C. Wyeth; Carolyn Wyeth
Exhibition HistoryChadds Ford, PA, 1972, no. 87; Brookings, SD, 1973, no. 16; Princeton, NJ, 1977, no. 25; Rockland, ME, 2000, color illustration, fig. 34; Rockland, Maine, Farnsworth Art Museum, "Every Picture Tells a Story," April 27-Dec. 30, 2013;
References
Richard Layton, "Inventory of Paintings in the Wyeth Studio, 1950," unpublished, Wyeth Family Archives, p. 43; Betsy James Wyeth, ed., The Wyeths The Letters of N. C. Wyeth, 1901-1945 (Boston: Gambit, 1971), p. 573; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 271; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.733, p. 376
Curatorial RemarksIn a Jan. 1918 letter to his mother Wyeth wrote, "It has been a busy, busy week. In the past eight days I shall have all but completed two pictures (of a set of four) for the Red Cross Magazine depicting the British occupation of Jerusalem, trying to bring out dramatically the sharp contrast of the new as against the old. For instance, my first picture depicts a group of shepherds on the hills outside the Holy City, gazing wraptly and with astonishment at an English reconnoitering airplane. The second shows an advancing column of British infantry descending the Mount of Olives, with Jerusalem spread out before them in the afternoon light. the third, a sentinel standing in the moonlight before the "sealed Golden Gate"--and the fourth, a regiment of British soldiers--or possibly a "tank" (if I can find out authentically that these modern leviathans entered the Sacred city) passing under the Arch de Ecce Homo, the arch under which Christ passed bearing the cross!" (Betsy James Wyeth, ed, p. 573)
Charlie Sedgewick, the first owner of the painting, was an African American who worked as an outdoor handyman for the Wyeths. His wife worked as a cook for the family.;Two gravure photographs by Philadelphia photographer Henry Troth, found in the artist's copy of "The Life of Christ" (Brandywine River Museum, NCWS.95.121.1) depict the same arched alley way in Jerusalem.
Charlie Sedgewick, the first owner of the painting, was an African American who worked as an outdoor handyman for the Wyeths. His wife worked as a cook for the family.;Two gravure photographs by Philadelphia photographer Henry Troth, found in the artist's copy of "The Life of Christ" (Brandywine River Museum, NCWS.95.121.1) depict the same arched alley way in Jerusalem.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Rick Echelmeyer, 6/2001