Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
How Many Millions One Can Only Guess
Alternate Title(s):Bison Herd
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1905
Dimensions:
16 1/4 × 36 in. (41.3 × 91.4 cm)
National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, Wyoming
Accession number: SUPP2000.473
Research Number: NCW: 473
InscribedLower right: WYETH (underlined) / 05 ; on reverse in pencil: The Tragedy of the Fur Trade
ProvenancePrivate collection, CA; (?); Collection of Mr. and Mrs. J. E. King, Houston, TX, by 1990; (American Illustrators Gallery, New York, NY, 1993); (Drummond Gallery, Coeur D'Alene, ID, 1995)
Exhibition HistoryPhiladelphia, PA, Curtis Publishing Company, Oct. 1905; Chadds Ford, PA, 1990(2), no. 15 on p. 81, b/w illustration p. 13 as "Bison Herd"
References
Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 272; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.91, ps. 128-129
Curatorial RemarksFor this commission (5 paintings), Wyeth received $275.00, "d____ good for any magazine" (NCW to Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth, "Dear Mama, I know I haven't written" and dated Oct. 1, 1905 in another hand, Wyeth Family Archives).
"The Kit Carson drawings are creating quite a stir at the Curtis Pub. Co., as I saw to-day that they had them all framed in gold and hung on exhibition down in their big hall. They were the only pictures on the wall of deep red plush and I tell you they look pretty well" (NCW to Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth, "Dear Mama, My heavens!..." and dated in another hand Oct. 5, 1905, Wyeth Family Archives).
This image is seen in a photograph taken of the living room of the house on Shallcross Avenue, Wilmington, in which the Wyeths lived from 1906 to 1908. The image is matted and framed and hangs above a bookcase; it is probably not the original artwork, but a photograph or reproduction of it (Wyeth Family Archives photo, 1906).
"The Kit Carson drawings are creating quite a stir at the Curtis Pub. Co., as I saw to-day that they had them all framed in gold and hung on exhibition down in their big hall. They were the only pictures on the wall of deep red plush and I tell you they look pretty well" (NCW to Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth, "Dear Mama, My heavens!..." and dated in another hand Oct. 5, 1905, Wyeth Family Archives).
This image is seen in a photograph taken of the living room of the house on Shallcross Avenue, Wilmington, in which the Wyeths lived from 1906 to 1908. The image is matted and framed and hangs above a bookcase; it is probably not the original artwork, but a photograph or reproduction of it (Wyeth Family Archives photo, 1906).
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency from painting
Photo Credit:Courtesy National Museum of Wildlife Art, 11/2001