Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Portrait of Stimson
Alternate Title(s):Babe; Stimson
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1909
Dimensions:
18 1/8 × 15 1/2 in. (46 × 39.4 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.89
Research Number: NCW: 89
Inscribedlower right: SKETH (sic) (illegible word) / JULY 09 / CONVERS / (illegible); adhered to top stretcher, red-bordered label inscribed in ink: Stimson / Wyeth / Needham / Mass.; all four stretcher keys marked: PATd. / FEB. 13 / 1883 / JUNE 16 / 1885 / A. D. S.; stamped on backing board: THIS PAINTING / WAS TREATED BY / Gustav D. Klimann / June 66 / THERMO - PNEUMATIC / LINING PROCESS
ProvenanceStimson Wyeth; descended in family
Exhibition HistoryHarrisburg, PA, 1965, no. 13; Needham, MA, 1967, no. 3; Chadds Ford, PA, 1972, no. 5; Chadds Ford, PA, 1982, no. 32, illus. b/w p. 28, see also p. 29
References
Betsy James Wyeth, ed., The Wyeths The Letters of N. C. Wyeth, 1901-1945 (Boston: Gambit, 1971), p. 304; David Michaelis, N. C. Wyeth A Biography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), b/w illustration p. 219, as "Babe"; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, Catalogue Raisonne of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), P.9, p. 801
Curatorial RemarksIn a letter to his mother dated July 19,1909, the artist wrote, "I have just come in from the studio after two hours spent on Babe's portrait! I want that it will be a good likeness and will be worthy of a space on the wall at home." In a subsequent letter, Wyeth wrote "Babe posed like a rock and with much spirit which is a great help to the artist always" (letter NCW to Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth, dated July 30, 1909, both letters Wyeth Family Archives). After the painting had been received in Needham, Wyeth acknowledged, "There could be no greater compliment than to say that Babe's portrait looks better the more you look at it. That should always be the case in every portrait..the thing that grows is the spirituality and not the likeness (NCW to Andrew Newell Wyeth, "Dear Papa, I neither wrote to Mama at Jackson...," and dated in another hand, Aug. 10, 1909, Wyeth Family Archives). Oral family history maintains that this portrait was done on the occasion of Stimson's graduation from high school.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Greg Heins, Boston