Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Well we knew what was happening there
Alternate Title(s):The Hanging
Medium: Oil on hardboard (Renaissance Panel)
Date: 1940
Dimensions:
30 1/4 × 20 1/2 in. (76.8 × 52.1 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.1088
Research Number: NCW: 1088
InscribedLower left: N. C. WYETH (underlined); adhered to reverse of panel, Renaissance Panel label, no. 882, dated 3/26/(19)40 and written across label: Photo (underlined); written on reverse of panel in black: 1 - 9 (circled) / CA 4512; painted in white on reverse of panel in NCW's hand: THE HANGING / P. 354
ProvenanceThe artist; Mrs. N. C. Wyeth; (Knoedler Galleries, New York, NY, through at least Feb. 1966, # CA4512); (?); Private collection; descended in family
Exhibition HistoryNew York, NY, 1957, no. 71; Lubbock, TX, 1959, no. 16
References
Richard Layton, "Inventory of Paintings in the Wyeth Studio, 1950, " unpublished, Wyeth Family Archives, p. 55; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 213; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.1297, p. 584
Curatorial RemarksIn his income tax notes for 1940 (Brandywine River Museum library), the artist listed as one of the expenses for this painting the purchase of an unidentified book on English harbors. The Brandywine River Museum holds the copy of Pitcairn's Island (NCWS.95.604) that Wyeth read in preparation for the commission, which includes a typed copy of his initial illustrative program for the Bounty trilogy; and the lantern slide of the charcoal drawing of the composition (see NCWS.95.1825.317).
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Rick Echelmeyer, 9/13/2005