Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The Last of the Chestnuts
Alternate Title(s):Splitting Fence Rails; The Last of the Chestnut Trees, Chadds Ford; Two Men Splitting Logs
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: ca. 1916
Dimensions:
32 1/8 × 42 1/4 in. (81.6 × 107.3 cm)
Brandywine River Museum of Art, Gift of Amanda K. Berls, 1980
Accession number: 80.3.38
Label Copy:
The chestnut blight was accidently introduced to the United States about 1904. Letters N. C. Wyeth wrote as early as March 1912, document the effect the chestnut blight had on the trees on his property in Chadds Ford: "Our chestnut trees are bound to go! So say the tree experts. It makes me sick to think of it" (Betsy James Wyeth, ed., The Wyeths, The Letters of N. C. Wyeth, 1901-1945. Boston: Gambit, 1971, p. 409)
This painting probably dates from the fall of 1916 when the "skeleton chestnuts" were still standing (NCW to Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth, Sept. 15, 1916, Wyeth Family Archives). Wyeth captured a local work crew probably hewing fence rails; he used an impressionist style with which he was experimenting, one inspired by his interest in the work of the Swiss Italian artist Giovanni Segantini (1858-1899). An archival photograph in the collection of the Brandywine River Museum of Art shows the canvas before the addition of tree trunk shadows on the roof of the shed and on the ground at the right side of the painting.
No documentation dating from the artist's lifetime provides a title for this painting. It was first referred to as The Last of the Chestnuts in the catalogue that accompanied an exhibition at Knoedler Gallery in 1957.
The chestnut blight was accidently introduced to the United States about 1904. Letters N. C. Wyeth wrote as early as March 1912, document the effect the chestnut blight had on the trees on his property in Chadds Ford: "Our chestnut trees are bound to go! So say the tree experts. It makes me sick to think of it" (Betsy James Wyeth, ed., The Wyeths, The Letters of N. C. Wyeth, 1901-1945. Boston: Gambit, 1971, p. 409)
This painting probably dates from the fall of 1916 when the "skeleton chestnuts" were still standing (NCW to Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth, Sept. 15, 1916, Wyeth Family Archives). Wyeth captured a local work crew probably hewing fence rails; he used an impressionist style with which he was experimenting, one inspired by his interest in the work of the Swiss Italian artist Giovanni Segantini (1858-1899). An archival photograph in the collection of the Brandywine River Museum of Art shows the canvas before the addition of tree trunk shadows on the roof of the shed and on the ground at the right side of the painting.
No documentation dating from the artist's lifetime provides a title for this painting. It was first referred to as The Last of the Chestnuts in the catalogue that accompanied an exhibition at Knoedler Gallery in 1957.
Research Number: NCW: 706
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined); 4 labels on reverse, removed before wax lining, 1. (double label): No. C-4618 / FRAME, No. C-4618 / PICTURE; 2. (double label): NO. 3558 / FRAME, NO. 3558 / PICTURE: 3.: Coe Kerr Gallery, Inc. / 49 East 82nd Street / New York, NY 10028 / Artist: [handwritten] N. C. Wyeth / Title [handwritten] "The Last of the Chestnuts" / Medium: [handwritten] oil; 4.: N. C. Wyeth 154816 / The Last of the Chestnuts / Ex. No. 19; also in crayon on stretcher and on frame, upper edge: CA7269
ProvenanceThe artist; Mrs. N. C. Wyeth; [Knoedler Gallery, New York, NY, 1956-1965]; Amanda K. Berls, New York, NY, 1966-1980
Exhibition HistoryNew York, NY, 1957, no. 19, as "The Last of the Chestnuts"; Southampton, NY, 1966, no numbers, as "The Last of the Chestnut Trees, Chadds Ford"; New York, NY, Coe Kerr Gallery, "A Tribute to American Realism, The Collection of Amanda K. Berls and Ruth A. Yerion," Jan. 7-31, 1976, illus., unpaginated; Chadds Ford, PA, 1980, p. 36, and no. 77 on p. 63; Chadds Ford, PA, 1992; Chadds Ford, PA, 1997, (no numbers); Marietta, GA, 1998, (no numbers); Kalamazoo, MI, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, "The Wyeths, America's Artists," Jan. 15-April 17, 2011;
References
Richard Layton, "Inventory of Paintings in the Wyeth Studio, 1950," unpublished, Wyeth Family Archives, p. 77, as "Splitting Fence Rails"; Brandywine River Museum, Catalogue of the Collection, 1969-1989 (Chadds Ford, PA: Brandywine Conservancy, 1991), p. 198; David Michaelis, N. C. Wyeth, A Biography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), p. 243; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, Catalogue Raisonne of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), L.111, p. 733; D. B. Dowd, "Nostalgia Illustrated: N. C. Wyeth, Advertising, and American Cultural History," in Jessica May and Christine B. Podmaniczky, "N. C. Wyeth: New Perspectives" (Brandywine River Museum of Art and Portland Museum of Art, 2019), p. 68, fig. 3
Curatorial RemarksThis painting probably dates from the fall of 1916; a letter dated September 15 mentions that "skeleton chestnuts" were still standing (NCW to HZW, Sept. 15, 1916, WFA). Both this work and NCW 404 have been known since the late 1950s or early 1960s as "Last of the Chestnuts," but the title seems not to have occurred during the artist's life time. No documentation dating from the artist's life time provides a title for this painting; it was first referred to as "The Last of the Chestnuts" in the 1957 Knoedler catalogue. The artist reworked the painting after it had been photographed, as evidenced by an archival photograph in the collection of the Brandywine River Museum of Art which shows the image before the addition of tree trunk shadows on the roof of the shed and on the ground from the right side of the painting.
Letters Wyeth wrote as early as March 1912 document the effect the chestnut blight had on the trees on the Wyeth property. "Our chestnut trees are bound to go! So say the tree experts. It makes me sick to think of it. I am wasting no time, however, and am arranging to plant maples, locusts, buttonwood, and so forth, as soon as the ground breaks." (Betsy James Wyeth, ed., The Wyeths, The Letters of N. C. Wyeth, 1901-1945 (Boston: Gambit, 1971), p. 409.
Letters Wyeth wrote as early as March 1912 document the effect the chestnut blight had on the trees on the Wyeth property. "Our chestnut trees are bound to go! So say the tree experts. It makes me sick to think of it. I am wasting no time, however, and am arranging to plant maples, locusts, buttonwood, and so forth, as soon as the ground breaks." (Betsy James Wyeth, ed., The Wyeths, The Letters of N. C. Wyeth, 1901-1945 (Boston: Gambit, 1971), p. 409.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:1, no credit given; 2. Archival photograph showing painting before addition of tree trunk shadows on roof and ground (Brandywine River Museum library)