Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Cannibal Shore
Alternate Title(s):Back Shore
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: ca. 1936
Dimensions:
30 × 47 1/8 in. (76.2 × 119.7 cm)
Collection of the Farnsworth Art Museum
Museum purchase, 1963
Accession number: SUPP2000.337
Research Number: NCW: 337
InscribedLower left, scratched into paint: N. C. WYETH
ProvenanceThe artist; Mrs. N. C. Wyeth to 1963
Exhibition HistoryNew York, NY, 1939, no. 10 as "Back Shore"; Washington, DC, 1946, no. 13 as "Cannibal Shore"; Rockland, ME, Farnsworth Art Museum, "1965 Summer Exhibition," July 22 - Sept. 10, 1965, no. 69; Rockland, ME, 1966, no. 73; Lewiston, ME, 1973; Chadds Ford, PA, 1978; Rockland, ME, 1982, color illustration on catalogue cover; Elmira, NY, 1985, p. 28, and illustration in b/w p. 9; Ogunquit, ME, Ogunquit Museum of American Art, "Mainescapes: 1900-1992," Aug. 8 - Sept. 15, 1993; Portland, ME, 2000, illustration in color, fig. 23, p. 37; Chadds Ford, PA, 2003; Kalamazoo, MI, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, "The Wyeths, America's Artists," Jan. 15-April 17, 2011;
References
Royal Cortissoz, "N. C. Wyeth," New York Herald Tribune, Dec. 10, 1939, 6:p. 8; N. C. Wyeth, Income Tax Notes for 1939 (unpublished, Brandywine River Museum Library); Richard Layton, "Inventory of Paintings in the Wyeth Studio, 1950," unpublished, Wyeth Family Archives, p. 87; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), illus. b/w p. 179; Christopher Hyde, "N. C. Wyeth's Maine Legacy," Down East Magazine (Nov. 1982), illus. p. 30-31; Arnold Skolnick, ed., Paintings of Maine (New York: Clarkson Potter, 1991), illus. in color p. 61; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, Catalogue Raisonne of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), L.198, p. 766-767
Curatorial RemarksIn December 1939, the artist exhibited at Macbeth Gallery a painting entitled "Back Shore," a name commonly given to a portion of the shoreline south of the neighboring village of Tenants Harbor. According to Ann Wyeth McCoy (to CBP, 4/2003), "Back Shore" and "Cannibal Shore" are the same painting, although no archival proof exists. There is no record of the existence of a painting called "Cannibal Shore" during the artist's lifetime; there is no record of "Back Shore" after the artist's death. Under either title, the painting is perhaps one of the artist's most overt tributes to Winslow Homer, recalling the oils of Homer's late career. In his 1939 income tax notes, Wyeth dated many of the paintings that had been done prior to 1939; unfortunately, he did not date this one.
The artist first saw this particular shoreline in September 1922, when he spent a few days in Port Clyde with his brother Stimson and Sidney M. Chase: "...we three walked to "Leonards Point" to see the surf, which was very impressive, and still better on the next point called "Cannibal Shore." It was sublime here, the sea breaking against the upright cliffs shooting the spray over forty feet high into the spruces" (NCW to CBW, Sept. 24, 1922, Wyeth Family Archives). Andrew Wyeth remembers his father working on this painting about the same time as "Portrait of a Young Artist" (NCW456). In Sept. 1936, N. C. Wyeth wrote to Ann Wyeth McCoy, "Andy and I have been spending a good deal of time on the Cannibal Shore lately, both day and at night" (Wyeth Family Archives).
The artist first saw this particular shoreline in September 1922, when he spent a few days in Port Clyde with his brother Stimson and Sidney M. Chase: "...we three walked to "Leonards Point" to see the surf, which was very impressive, and still better on the next point called "Cannibal Shore." It was sublime here, the sea breaking against the upright cliffs shooting the spray over forty feet high into the spruces" (NCW to CBW, Sept. 24, 1922, Wyeth Family Archives). Andrew Wyeth remembers his father working on this painting about the same time as "Portrait of a Young Artist" (NCW456). In Sept. 1936, N. C. Wyeth wrote to Ann Wyeth McCoy, "Andy and I have been spending a good deal of time on the Cannibal Shore lately, both day and at night" (Wyeth Family Archives).
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Courtesy of Farnsworth Art Museum