Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
A New World
Alternate Title(s):Chemistry
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1938
Dimensions:
50 × 34 1/4 in. (127 × 87 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.1157
Research Number: NCW: 1157
InscribedUpper left: N C WYETH (underlined)
ProvenanceHercules Powder Company, Inc. (Hercules Incorporated), Wilmington, DE, 1938-2002; (Christie's, New York, NY, April 25, 2002, lot no. 59)
References
N. C. Wyeth, Income Tax Notes for 1939 (unpublished, Brandywine River Museum Library); Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 153; Bob Strauss, Beverly Strauss, American Sporting Advertising, Vol. I, Posters and Calendars (Jefferson, ME: Circus Promotions Corp., 1987), HE-26; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), C.119, p. 675-676
Curatorial RemarksWyeth's correspondence makes it clear that he worked on this painting throughout July, 1938, after a picture of a single hand holding a test tube had been rejected by the Hercules art department (NCW to Carolyn Bockius Wyeth, letters dated in another hand June 30 - July 22, 1938, Wyeth Family Archives). The Andrew and Betsy Wyeth collection includes a composition drawing of the young chemist with a large furnace in the background and a dog as a companion (NCW 1443), as well as the charcoal composition drawing for this image, and a sheet of two studies for the hands holding the beaker and test tube (NCW 2283). The Brandywine River Museum holds lantern slides of the alternate composition (NCWS.95.1825.172), and of the final composition (NCWS.95.1825.173) used in the transfer of the design from paper to canvas.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:photography directly from artwork
Photo Credit:Courtesy of Christie's, 2002