Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Hark, Hark, the Dogs do Bark
Alternate Title(s):The Beggars Are Coming to Town
Medium: Oil on hardboard (Renaissance Panel)
Date: 1938
Dimensions:
29 1/2 × 22 3/8 in. (74.9 × 56.8 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.988
Research Number: NCW: 988
InscribedUpper left.: N. C. W. ; painted on reverse of panel: "HARK, HARK, THE DOGS DO BARK!" / N. C. WYETH / 1938; adhered to reverse of panel, Renaissance Pael label, no. 641 dated 3-18-1938, with following in ink: "THE BEGGARS ARE COMING / TO TOWN"; adhered to reverse of panel (Knoedler's label): No. 54845; adhered to reverse of panel, partial label: Columbus Gallery / of Fine Arts / 1-8 (missing); adhered to panel, partial label: #39 / Memphis (missing) / Overton (missing) / Howard Pyle and the Wyeth (missing) / Imagination (missing)
ProvenanceThe artist; Mrs. N. C. Wyeth (and with Knoedler Galleries, New York, NY, 1956 - 1968, # 54845); Carolyn Wyeth; (Frank E. Fowler Co., 1983); Dr. and Mrs. Joseph Valloti
Exhibition HistoryWilmington, DE, 1946, no. 28, as "Hark Hark the Dogs Do Bark"; Washington, DC, 1946, no. 26; New York, NY, 1957, no. 50, as "The Beggars Are Coming to Town"; Lubbock, TX, 1959, no. 4; Memphis, TN, 1983, no. 35, color illustration p. 80, see also p. 68
References
Richard Layton, "Inventory of Paintings in the Wyeth Studio, 1950," unpublished, Wyeth Family Archives, p. 53; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 208; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.1245, p. 564
Curatorial RemarksThe artist's 1940 income tax notes list the expense ($52.00) for hiring models for 22 figures during the painting of this image. NCW 1434 is a composition drawing, and there are two lantern slides of the drawing that Wyeth used to transfer the design from paper to panel (Brandywine River Museum, NCWS.95.1825.60 and NCWS.95.1825.320). The Brandywine River Museum holds an earlier, unillustrated edition of this book that the artist used to plan his pictures (NCWS.95.595).
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Courtesy of Frank Fowler