Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Red Spar Buoy, Penobscot Bay
Alternate Title(s):Gull on Spar; possibly The Sea Gull
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1933
Dimensions:
37 3/4 × 53 1/4 in. (95.9 × 135.3 cm)
Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee,
Gift of Carolyn Wyeth
Accession number: SUPP2000.894
Research Number: NCW: 894
InscribedLower left: N. C. WYETH
ProvenanceThe artist; Mrs. N. C. Wyeth; Carolyn Wyeth, to 1980
References
N. C. Wyeth, Income tax notes for 1939 (unpublished, Brandywine River Museum library, as "Gull on Spar"; William T. Henning, Jr., A Catalogue of the American Collection (Chattanooga, TN: Hunter Museum of Art, 1985), p. 287; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, Catalogue Raisonne of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), L.176, p. 757
Curatorial RemarksThe authority for the title of this painting rests on an inscription in the artist's hand on the reverse of an archival photograph of the painting (Brandywine River Museum library). The painting was one of three pictures of gulls sent to the Macbeth Gallery exhibition in 1939 (New York, NY, 1939) but it was not hung. The artist's income tax notes for that year (Brandywine River Museum library) record the date of the painting as 1933. In November 1935, Wyeth exhibited "The Sea Gull" at the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts, but no documentation identifies the work as this painting or NCW 895; a review of the exhibition ("Exhibit by Delaware Artists Draws Throng," Wilmington Morning News, Nov. 5, 1935, p. 15) referred to the painting as "Lonely Gull."
The artist contemplated giving this painting to the parents of Peter Hurd, writing "Would the one of the gull on the spar buoy be too large and would it be the character of picture Mr. Hurd would enjoy?" (NCW to Henriette Wyeth Hurd, Wyeth Family Archives, Oct. 13, 1944).
The artist contemplated giving this painting to the parents of Peter Hurd, writing "Would the one of the gull on the spar buoy be too large and would it be the character of picture Mr. Hurd would enjoy?" (NCW to Henriette Wyeth Hurd, Wyeth Family Archives, Oct. 13, 1944).
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting