Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
April Rain
Alternate Title(s):A Herdsman on the Brandywine
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1935
Dimensions:
41 7/8 × 51 7/8 in. (106.4 × 131.8 cm)
Private collection, Wilmington, DE
Accession number: SUPP2000.74
Research Number: NCW: 74
InscribedLower left: N. C. WYETH; on reverse on excess tacking edge at upper right: PAINTED / BY N. C. WYETH / A. W.; incised across top of frame: Made By. F. Coll Wilm. Del.
Provenance(?); Private collection, to 1972
Exhibition History"Chadds Ford Mill--Tricounty Conservancy" (later Brandywine River Museum of Art), Chadds Ford, PA, 1969, as "A Herdsman on the Brandywine"; Chadds Ford, PA, 1982, no. 3, illus. in color p. 40, see also p. 32; Chadds Ford, PA, 1992; Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum of Art, June 22-Sept. 15, 2019, "N. C. Wyeth: New Perspectives," illus. p. 180
References
Kate F. Jennings. N. C. Wyeth, New York, NY (Brompton Books Corp., Crescent Books, 1992), illus. in color, p. 102-103; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, Catalogue Raisonne of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), L.188, p. 762, 763
Curatorial RemarksThe authority for the title of this painting seems to rest with Andrew Wyeth, who communicated it to James H. Duff for the Chadds Ford, 1982, exhibition and catalogue. Lantern slides were made from very few of N. C. Wyeth's finished paintings, but there is one of this painting in the N. C. Wyeth studio collection (Brandywine River Museum of Art, NCWS.95.1825.240). The presence of this painting (which links it to the title "A Herdsman on the Brandywine") in the Chadds Ford 1969 exhibition at the Chadds Ford Historical Society is confirmed by installation photographs (Brandywine Conservancy Archives / Early History).
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:1. Transparency directly from painting; 2. Painting on display during Chadds Ford, Pa., 1969
Photo Credit:1. Brandywine River Museum file photography; 2. photographer unknown