Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The Trial of the Bow
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1929
Dimensions:
dimensions unavailable
Philadelphia Museum of Art,
Gift of GlaxoSmithKline, 2012
Accession number: SUPP2000.1783
Research Number: NCW: 1783
InscribedUpper left: N. C. WYETH / © (from reproduction)
ProvenanceThe artist to late 1930; Mrs. T. Whitney Blake, Katonah, NY, 1930-?; (?); by late 1980s, SmithKline, then GlaxoSmithKline, to 2012
Exhibition HistoryBoston, MA, 1930, no. 12; Wilmington, DE, 1930(1), no. 5
References
Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 213; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.1105, p. 516
Curatorial RemarksThe Wyeth Family Archives includes the copy of the book that N. C. Wyeth read and annotated in preparation for the commission, The Odyssey of Homer, translated by George Herbert Palmer, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1891. The book was found with notes about the commission in NCW's hand, a copy of a letter to Lovell Thompson of Houghton Mifflin dated August 3, 1929, Thompson's reply, dated August 7, 1929, and notes made by NCW for the Illustrator's preface.
In Dec. 1930, Wyeth wrote to Roger L. Scaife that he had sold the entire set of Odyssey paintings to "a Mrs. Blake of New York" who would keep them all together (NCW to RLS, Dec. 22, 1930, Houghton Library, Harvard University). Mrs. T. Whitney Blake's name occurs twice in the artist's address book (Brandywine River Museum, NCWS.95.1174). Mrs. Blake's Stamford, Connecticut, property was sold in 1948 to a Mr. Abraham Unger (NYT, June 11, 1948). Mr. Unger's name occurs as part of the inscription on the reverse of this painting.
In Dec. 1930, Wyeth wrote to Roger L. Scaife that he had sold the entire set of Odyssey paintings to "a Mrs. Blake of New York" who would keep them all together (NCW to RLS, Dec. 22, 1930, Houghton Library, Harvard University). Mrs. T. Whitney Blake's name occurs twice in the artist's address book (Brandywine River Museum, NCWS.95.1174). Mrs. Blake's Stamford, Connecticut, property was sold in 1948 to a Mr. Abraham Unger (NYT, June 11, 1948). Mr. Unger's name occurs as part of the inscription on the reverse of this painting.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:in Catalogue Raisonne (2008), Photography from printed source; on-line after 2014, digital image from painting
Photo Credit:in Catalogue Raisonne (2008), Courtesy of Delaware Art Museum, 8/2001; on-line after 2014, courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art