Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The boarders swarmed over the fence like monkeys
Alternate Title(s):Attack on the Block House
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1911
Dimensions:
47 × 36 5/8 in. (119.4 × 93 cm)
Brandywine River Museum of Art, Purchased through the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Bayard Sharp, 1995
Accession number: 95.11.1
Research Number: NCW: 153
InscribedLower left: N. C. WYETH (underlined) / 11; Scribner's label (# B2072) originally applied to reverse of canvas now on backing board
ProvenanceCharles Scribner's Sons, New York, NY (sold through Retail Department); [?]; Private collection, Spring House, PA, by 1972; (?); Collection of John Edward Dell, ?-1995
Exhibition HistoryChadds Ford, PA, 1972, no. 60, as "Attack on the Block House"; Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum, "N. C. Wyeth and His Grandson: A Legacy," Jan. 24 - March 29, 1998 (Chadds Ford venue only of Chicago, IL, 1997 and not included in checklist): Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum, "N. C. Wyeth's Treasure Island: Classic Illustrations for a Classic Tale," Sept. 10- Nov. 20, 2011
References
Betsy James Wyeth, ed., The Wyeths The Letters of N. C. Wyeth, 1901-1945 (Boston: Gambit, 1971), p. 383; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 218; John Edward Dell, ed., Visions of Adventure, N. C. Wyeth and the Brandywine Artists (New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2000), color detail on frontispiece and color illustration p. 44; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.340, p. 227
Curatorial RemarksOn June 24, 1911, Wyeth wrote to his mother, "I am writing dangerously near to a fiendish bunch of Godless men scrambling over a stockade! It's surprising how quietly they are doing it too, loaded down as they are--first with rum and all manner of arms, guns, pistols, cutlasses and knives!" (Betsy James Wyeth, ed., p. 383)
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Rick Echelmeyer, 1995