Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Spring--1918
Alternate Title(s):Spring, 1918; The Letter; The Letter--1918
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1932
Dimensions:
48 3/8 × 52 1/2 in. (122.9 × 133.4 cm)
Brandywine River Museum of Art, Bequest of Carolyn Wyeth, 1996
Accession number: 96.1.33
Label Copy:
Spring—1918 imagines N.C. Wyeth’s parents in Needham, Massachusetts, during World War I. By 1932, both Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth and Andrew Newell Wyeth had died. In the painting, Wyeth freely associated his father with the French peasantry, depicting him in a blue jacket and cap typical of a French farmer and evoking the figure in Millet’s The Angelus, a painting Wyeth much admired. The figure of his mother sits reading a letter, presumably from the front, with folded newspapers, another source of information, beside her. The work represents a tribute to what the artist saw as his mother’s strength and courage during World War I when two of her sons served overseas, and to her expressed disappointment, her eldest, N. C. Wyeth, had declined several offers to become an official Army artist. The mood of the painting is heightened by the twisted limbs, barren field and smoky fire, tinging it with nostalgia, regret and sorrow. While the painting is extremely personal to the artist, the subject struck a chord with anyone who had waited at home for news from abroad.
In 1944, during World War II, Wyeth painted the composition again, with only slight modifications, using tempera on hardboard panel. He titled this version The War Letter, which immediately imbued the work with new and heartrending meaning.
Spring—1918 imagines N.C. Wyeth’s parents in Needham, Massachusetts, during World War I. By 1932, both Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth and Andrew Newell Wyeth had died. In the painting, Wyeth freely associated his father with the French peasantry, depicting him in a blue jacket and cap typical of a French farmer and evoking the figure in Millet’s The Angelus, a painting Wyeth much admired. The figure of his mother sits reading a letter, presumably from the front, with folded newspapers, another source of information, beside her. The work represents a tribute to what the artist saw as his mother’s strength and courage during World War I when two of her sons served overseas, and to her expressed disappointment, her eldest, N. C. Wyeth, had declined several offers to become an official Army artist. The mood of the painting is heightened by the twisted limbs, barren field and smoky fire, tinging it with nostalgia, regret and sorrow. While the painting is extremely personal to the artist, the subject struck a chord with anyone who had waited at home for news from abroad.
In 1944, during World War II, Wyeth painted the composition again, with only slight modifications, using tempera on hardboard panel. He titled this version The War Letter, which immediately imbued the work with new and heartrending meaning.
Research Number: NCW: 143
InscribedLower right: N.C. WYETH; (note that archival photographs clearly indicate that at one time painting was dated: N. C. WYETH / 1932)
ProvenanceN. C. Wyeth; Mrs. N. C. Wyeth; Carolyn Wyeth
Exhibition HistoryWilmington, DE, 1932, no. 7, as "Spring--1918"; Philadelphia, PA, 1935(2), no. 7 as "Spring, 1918"; West Chester, PA, 1935(2), no. 7, as "Spring, 1918"; Washington, DC, 1937, no. 21, as "The Letter," illus. p. 36 b/w; New York, NY, 1941, no. 267 as "The Letter--1918"; Chadds Ford, PA, 1995, no. 12, ps. 37-39; Louisville, KY, 1998, no. 4: Chadds Ford, PA, Rural Modern, American Art Beyond the City, Oct. 29, 2016-Jan. 22, 2017, plate 68; 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 Cincinnati, OH, Taft Museum, Feb. 8-May 3, 2020), "N. C. Wyeth: New Perspectives," illus. p. 178
References
"Wyeths Hold One-Family Exhibition," Philadelphia Record, March 31, 1935, 4: p. 6; C. H. Bonte, "That Gifted Wyeth Family Exhibiting at the Alliance," Philadelphia Inquirer, March 31, 1935, p. SO 9; Richard Layton, "Inventory of Paintings in the Wyeth Studio, 1950, " unpublished, Wyeth Family Archives, p. 91; David Michaelis, N. C. Wyeth, A Biography (New York: Knopf, 1998), p. 378; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, Catalogue Raisonne of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), P.37, p. 817; Amanda C. Burdan, “Off the Beaten Path: Aspects of Rural Modernism” in Rural Modern, American Art Beyond the City (NY: Rizzoli, 2016), plate 68;
Curatorial RemarksAndrew Wyeth confirmed that the figures represent his paternal grandmother and grandfather, on their property set along the Charles River in Needham, Massachusetts. N. C. Wyeth's parents had died by 1932 and this painting represents a tribute to Henriette Zirngiebel's strength and courage during World War I, as well as the artist's continuing efforts to deal with his mother's death in 1925. For the artist, the painting poignantly recalls bitter correspndence with his mother during the spring 1918 when Stimson Wyeth was serving overseas. See David Michaelis, "N. C. Wyeth, A Biography" (Knopf, 1998), pages 258-260 for a description of the letters. See also Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, Experiment and Invention, 1925-1935 (Chadds Ford, PA: Brandywine River Museum, 1995), ps. 37-39.
The Brandywine River Museum of Art holds a charcoal sketch (NCW 2079, 96.1.518) for the two figures and the printing block (NCWS.95.6753) used to make the reproduction in the 1937 Washington, DC, catalogue.
Thomas Hart Benton also participated in the 1937 Washington, DC, exhibition and would have seen Wyeth's painting in person or through the catalogue reproduction. In 1943 Benton created "Letter from Overseas," a war-related lithograph depicting a woman in an emotionally charged landscape reading a letter.
The Brandywine River Museum of Art holds a charcoal sketch (NCW 2079, 96.1.518) for the two figures and the printing block (NCWS.95.6753) used to make the reproduction in the 1937 Washington, DC, catalogue.
Thomas Hart Benton also participated in the 1937 Washington, DC, exhibition and would have seen Wyeth's painting in person or through the catalogue reproduction. In 1943 Benton created "Letter from Overseas," a war-related lithograph depicting a woman in an emotionally charged landscape reading a letter.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting