Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
On the October Trail. (A Navajo family.)
Alternate Title(s):A Navajo Family
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1907
Dimensions:
42 1/8 × 29 5/8 in. (107 × 75.2 cm)
Brandywine River Museum of Art, Museum purchase, 1983
Accession number: 83.4
Research Number: NCW: 95
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined) / 07 ; and then again below: N. C. WYETH (underlined)
ProvenanceThe artist; Mr. and Mrs. Anson Phelps Stokes, 1908-?; by 1937, Mr. and Mrs. Harold Phelps Stokes, Washington, DC; Mrs. Robert B. Hawkins, Boulder, CO
Exhibition HistoryChadds Ford, PA, 1972, no. 17; Chadds Ford, PA, 1975; Cody, WY, 1980, p. 56, illus. pl. no. 30 p. 49; Chadds Ford, PA, 1987(2), no. 5, illus. in color p. 94; Chadds Ford, PA, 1990(2), illus. in color p. 41, no. 32. p. 82, also p. 74; 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.
References
Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 274; Stephen May "N. C. Wyeth's Wild West," Southwest Art, vol. 20, no. 9 (Feb. 1991), illus. in color p. 102; Brandywine River Museum, Catalogue of the Collection, 1969-1989 (Chadds Ford, PA: Brandywine Conservancy,1991), ps. 195 and 200, illus. in color p. 201; Kate F. Jennings, N. C. Wyeth (New York, NY: Brompton Books Corp., Crescent Books, 1992), illus. in color p. 29; David Michaelis, N. C. Wyeth A Biography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), illus. in color after p. 20; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.208, p. 175; http://crystalbridges.org/blog/a-wyeth-family-reunion-in-crystal-bridges-galleries/;
Curatorial RemarksOn the October Trail was published for its general interest, significance and beauty. It did not relate to a specific article or story and may have been done on speculation, since it was available to Scribners by October 1907, when it began to appear in the advertising sections of other magazines as an example of the outstanding art work to be found in Scribner's.
A letter dated "May-7-'37" by N. C. Wyeth to Mr. Harold Phelps Stokes (collection of the Brandywine River Museum of Art, Annenberg Research Center) describes the painting: "A Buck, his squaw and a pappoose (sic) riding from right to left across an evening sky and a large rising moon. The Buck is on an Indian Pony--the squaw on a Burro. The painting was made after a fall and winter spent on the Navajo Reservation near Farmington, New Mexico. The actual scene not far from 'Ship Rock'(sic)."
A letter dated "May-7-'37" by N. C. Wyeth to Mr. Harold Phelps Stokes (collection of the Brandywine River Museum of Art, Annenberg Research Center) describes the painting: "A Buck, his squaw and a pappoose (sic) riding from right to left across an evening sky and a large rising moon. The Buck is on an Indian Pony--the squaw on a Burro. The painting was made after a fall and winter spent on the Navajo Reservation near Farmington, New Mexico. The actual scene not far from 'Ship Rock'(sic)."
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:no credit on transparency