Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Still Life with Chipped Blue Bowl and Bittersweet
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: ca. 1920/1930
Dimensions:
25 × 34 1/4 in. (63.5 × 87 cm)
Brandywine River Museum of Art, Bequest of Carolyn Wyeth, 1996
Accession number: 96.1.54
Label Copy:
The color scheme of this work recalls Wyeth's instructions to friend and artist Sidney Chase regarding still-life practice: "Paint a colorful still life once a week, spend no more than two days on them; don't worry about too careful drawing but get some emphatic color scheme interpretive of the groups...Make [an] arrangement in blue and gold and play with the color until it plays a gorgeous symphony of these two colors" (NCW to Sidney M. Chase, dated in another hand Oct. 16, 1922, Wyeth Family Archives). The ceramic bottle (NCWS.95.1535) remains in Wyeth's studio collection.
Handwritten notations ("10/6," "1212," "Buffalo Bill," and " 9") on the stretcher bars suggest that the stretcher bars, if not the actual canvas, were originally used for one of Wyeth's illustrations for a 1916 article by William F. Cody, published in Hearst's Magazine 1916. Those notations provide an earliest possible date for this painting.
The color scheme of this work recalls Wyeth's instructions to friend and artist Sidney Chase regarding still-life practice: "Paint a colorful still life once a week, spend no more than two days on them; don't worry about too careful drawing but get some emphatic color scheme interpretive of the groups...Make [an] arrangement in blue and gold and play with the color until it plays a gorgeous symphony of these two colors" (NCW to Sidney M. Chase, dated in another hand Oct. 16, 1922, Wyeth Family Archives). The ceramic bottle (NCWS.95.1535) remains in Wyeth's studio collection.
Handwritten notations ("10/6," "1212," "Buffalo Bill," and " 9") on the stretcher bars suggest that the stretcher bars, if not the actual canvas, were originally used for one of Wyeth's illustrations for a 1916 article by William F. Cody, published in Hearst's Magazine 1916. Those notations provide an earliest possible date for this painting.
Research Number: NCW: 942
InscribedOn top stretcher bar, two stamps with pencil inscription written between: Buffalo Bill
ProvenanceThe artist; Mrs. N. C. Wyeth; Carolyn Wyeth
References
Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, Catalogue Raisonne of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), S.8, p. 786
Curatorial RemarksThe stamps on the stretcher bar, in the form of boxes with lines provided for added information, were probably applied by a publisher. Despite the illegibility of the stamped items within each box, the handwritten notations ("10/6," "1212," "Buffalo Bill," and " 9" ") suggest that the stretcher bar if not the canvas was originally used for the Hearst's 1916 article by William F. Cody, providing an earliest possible date for this painting.
The color scheme of this work recalls Wyeth's instructions to Sidney Chase regarding still life, "Paint a colorful still life once a week, spend no more than two days on them; don't worry about too careful drawing but get some emphatic color scheme interpretive of the groups...Make [an] arrangement in blue and gold and play with the color until it plays a gorgoeus symphony of these two colors...(NCW to Sidney M. Chase, "Port Clyde is a delicious memory..." and dated in another hand Oct. 16, 1922, Wyeth Family Archives).
The ceramic bottle (NCWS.95.1535) remains in Wyeth's studio collection.
The color scheme of this work recalls Wyeth's instructions to Sidney Chase regarding still life, "Paint a colorful still life once a week, spend no more than two days on them; don't worry about too careful drawing but get some emphatic color scheme interpretive of the groups...Make [an] arrangement in blue and gold and play with the color until it plays a gorgoeus symphony of these two colors...(NCW to Sidney M. Chase, "Port Clyde is a delicious memory..." and dated in another hand Oct. 16, 1922, Wyeth Family Archives).
The ceramic bottle (NCWS.95.1535) remains in Wyeth's studio collection.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Rick Echelmeyer, 4/2002