Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Fairy Cove, Port Clyde
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: ca. 1925/1930
Dimensions:
25 1/16 × 30 1/8 in. (63.7 × 76.5 cm)
Brandywine River Museum of Art, Bequest of Carolyn Wyeth, 1996
Accession number: 96.1.46
Label Copy:
The lush, loose brushwork of this painting demonstrates N. C. Wyeth’s growing range of styles in the 1920s. Painting over a 1921 illustration for The Ladies Home Journal, Wyeth casts off the business of commercial illustration for a much more personal painting done during a summer spent with his family in Maine. The tall spindly pines block the view of the beach beyond, which the Wyeth children called Fairy Cove. The glints of sunlight filtering through the trees enliven the foreground and contrast with the hazy atmosphere of the background.
The lush, loose brushwork of this painting demonstrates N. C. Wyeth’s growing range of styles in the 1920s. Painting over a 1921 illustration for The Ladies Home Journal, Wyeth casts off the business of commercial illustration for a much more personal painting done during a summer spent with his family in Maine. The tall spindly pines block the view of the beach beyond, which the Wyeth children called Fairy Cove. The glints of sunlight filtering through the trees enliven the foreground and contrast with the hazy atmosphere of the background.
Research Number: NCW: 940
InscribedOn reverse of canvas in black: Vandemark's Folly / December (illegible)21 / 21 (illegible) / J3264A; along proper right side: Curtis Pub Co. J32; remants of red and white label on stretcher; each stretcher member stamped: BAYSTATE STRETCHER / -MADE BY- / WADSWORTH-HOWLAND & CO., Inc. / BOSTON, MASS.
ProvenanceThe artist; Mrs. N. C. Wyeth; Carolyn Wyeth
Exhibition HistoryChadds Ford, PA, 2005
References
Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, Catalogue Raisonne of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), L.155, p. 750
Curatorial RemarksThe artist reused this canvas, cutting down and restretching an illustration that appeared in the December 1921 issue of Ladies' Home Journal (NCW 358). Portions of the original illustration are still visible on the tacking edges. The scene depicted in the painting is not far from the Wyeth house, a beach the Wyeth children called "Fairy Cove."
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:1. Transparency directly from painting; 2. view of the tacking edge, showing a portion NCW 358
Photo Credit:1. Jim Schneck, 8/2004;
On view