Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
First Aid to the Hungry
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1914
Dimensions:
32 × 40 in. (81.3 × 101.6 cm)
Jacqueline and Rodman Drake Collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.289
Research Number: NCW: 289
InscribedLower right: N C WYETH (underlined); on tacking edge at top: a 8425; also on tacking edge at top, and upside down, illegible pencil notations which include numerals "5216," and possibly the word "gold" or "gilt", and "# 1"
ProvenanceKellogg Company, Battle Creek, MI, ca. 1963-1965; Private collection and descended in family, to ca. 2005; (Illustration House, New York, NY)
References
Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 295, b/w illustration p. 141; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), C.25, p. 645
Curatorial RemarksThe image was first published in 1915 showing Kellogg's Corn Flake boxes instead of the brown back packs. Roger T. Reed of Illustration House documented a second use in 1926, an advertisement for Kellogg's PEP cereal; in it the flag is a Jolly Roger and the girl on the right has shorter hair. Reed has suggested that all the changes were done photomechanically.
In 1914 several of the Wyeth children were age appropriate to this picture; Henriette was 7 and Carolyn 5 when their father painted it. Ann Wyeth McCoy, who was born in 1915, knew the picture well from her childhood; in a late interview she said her father undoubtedly had her sisters in mind when he painted the picture, but that neither of them posed directly.
In 1914 several of the Wyeth children were age appropriate to this picture; Henriette was 7 and Carolyn 5 when their father painted it. Ann Wyeth McCoy, who was born in 1915, knew the picture well from her childhood; in a late interview she said her father undoubtedly had her sisters in mind when he painted the picture, but that neither of them posed directly.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:1. digital photography directly from painting; 2. digital image from printed source
Photo Credit:1. Jeffrey Sturges, 2/16/2007