Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
In the Crystal Depths
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1906
Dimensions:
38 × 26 in. (96.5 × 66 cm)
Brandywine River Museum of Art, Museum Purchase, 1981
Accession number: 81.6
Label Copy:
This is one of five paintings by N. C. Wyeth of woodland Native Americans which were published in Outing Magazine under the collective title of The Indian in His Solitude. The series presented a marked contrast to Wyeth’s more "action-packed" pictures derived from western stories. While several of the other paintings in the series reflect in their subdued palettes the vogue for tonalism, In the Crystal Depths, with its stark contrast between light and dark is pure Wyeth. This is not an ethnographic portrait, but a romanticized concept of pre-settler civilizations.
The series was so popular that Outing printed various sized reproductions of the Solitude paintings and sold some in deluxe boxed editions. The Japanese maker Noritake reproduced In the Crystal Depths on china between 1911-1918.
This is one of five paintings by N. C. Wyeth of woodland Native Americans which were published in Outing Magazine under the collective title of The Indian in His Solitude. The series presented a marked contrast to Wyeth’s more "action-packed" pictures derived from western stories. While several of the other paintings in the series reflect in their subdued palettes the vogue for tonalism, In the Crystal Depths, with its stark contrast between light and dark is pure Wyeth. This is not an ethnographic portrait, but a romanticized concept of pre-settler civilizations.
The series was so popular that Outing printed various sized reproductions of the Solitude paintings and sold some in deluxe boxed editions. The Japanese maker Noritake reproduced In the Crystal Depths on china between 1911-1918.
Research Number: NCW: 94
InscribedUpper left: N. C. WYETH (underlined) / 1906
ProvenanceOuting Publishing Company; Emery Mapes (founder of the Cream of Wheat Company), to 1921; Mr. and Mrs. George V. Thomson, to 1981
Exhibition HistoryChadds Ford, PA, 1972, no. 16; Greenville, NC, 1974, no. 7; Chadds Ford, PA, 1987(2), no. 3, illus. on p. 17; Chadds Ford, PA, 2002(2); Stockbridge, MA, Norman Rockwell Museum, June 9-Oct. 28, 2018, "Keepers of the Flame: Parrish, Wyeth, Rockwell and the Narrative Tradition," p. 42, illus. p. 44; 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 Cincinnaic, OH, Taft Museum, Feb. 8-May 3, 2020), "N. C. Wyeth: New Perspectives," illus. p. 120
References
Walt Reed, ed., The Illustrator in America: 1900-1960's (New York: Reinhold Publishing Corp., 1966), illus. b/w p. 73; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 268, illus. p. 60; Susan E. Meyer, "N.. C. Wyeth," American Artist, vol. 39, no. 391 (February 1975), illus. in color p. 38; Carol Billman, "N. C. Wyeth," American History Illustrated, vol. XX, no. 10 (February 1986), illus. p. 28; Dwight V. Gast, "Rooms with a View," Pinnacle, (Sept.-Oct. 1990); Brandywine River Museum, Catalogue of the Collection, 1969-1989 (Chadds Ford, PA: Brandywine Conservancy, 1991), ps. 195 and 200, frontispiece illus. in color; Erin R. Corrales-Diaz, "The Indian In His Solitude, N. C. Wyeth's Images of Native Americans," Nineteenth Century, Magazine of the Victorian Society in America, vol. 28, no. 2 (Fall 2008), p. 10; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.154, p. 155
Curatorial RemarksThis is one of five paintings by Wyeth of woodland Native Americans which were published in The Outing Magazine under the collective title of "The Indian and His Solitude."
Outing printed a number of different sized reproductions of the five "Solitude" paintings. In the Dec. 1907 issue (unpaginated, Outing Magazine Advertiser), the publishers advertised reproductions 12 x 16 inches, mounted on heavy boards 17 x 22 inches overall. A page from an advertising section torn from an unidentified magazine offered a boxed set of reproductions, 14 x 23 inches, mounted to 17 x 27 inches (Library, Delaware Art Museum, incorrectly dated August 1904).
Wyeth's fellow Pyle student Frank Schoonover worked on a similar composition about the same time, which appeared in Outing, vol. XLVIII, no. 5, (August 1906) opposite page 600.
The design on this painting was reproduced on Noritake China manufactured between 1911-1918. For references, see Joan Van Patten, The Collector's Encyclopedia of Nippon Porcelain, Second Series (Paducah, KY: Collector Books, 1982), pl. 735 p. 129, and also Van Patten, The Collector's Encyclopedia..., Fourth Series (1997) p. 21, 23, 24
Outing printed a number of different sized reproductions of the five "Solitude" paintings. In the Dec. 1907 issue (unpaginated, Outing Magazine Advertiser), the publishers advertised reproductions 12 x 16 inches, mounted on heavy boards 17 x 22 inches overall. A page from an advertising section torn from an unidentified magazine offered a boxed set of reproductions, 14 x 23 inches, mounted to 17 x 27 inches (Library, Delaware Art Museum, incorrectly dated August 1904).
Wyeth's fellow Pyle student Frank Schoonover worked on a similar composition about the same time, which appeared in Outing, vol. XLVIII, no. 5, (August 1906) opposite page 600.
The design on this painting was reproduced on Noritake China manufactured between 1911-1918. For references, see Joan Van Patten, The Collector's Encyclopedia of Nippon Porcelain, Second Series (Paducah, KY: Collector Books, 1982), pl. 735 p. 129, and also Van Patten, The Collector's Encyclopedia..., Fourth Series (1997) p. 21, 23, 24
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:No credit on transparency