Headgate

Artist:

N.C. Wyeth

(American, 1882 - 1945)

Headgate

Alternate Title(s):Head Gate
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: ca. 1911 / 1912
Dimensions:
approximately 25 x 30 in. (63.4 x 76.1 cm)
Collection of Dr. Irving and Doris Liebman
Accession number: SUPP2000.572
Research Number: NCW: 572
ProvenanceThe artist; Mrs. N. C. Wyeth (and with Knoedler Galleries, New York, NY, 1956 - through 1966, # 54840); (Coe Kerr Gallery, New York, NY, c. 1978); (La Galeria, San Francisco, CA, through at least 1988); (Frank E. Fowler, Lookout Mountain, TN); (Christies, New York, March 14, 1991, lot no. 118)
Exhibition HistoryNew York, NY, 1957, no. 20, as "Winter"; Rockland, ME, 1966, no. 45; San Mateo, CA, La Galeria, "Wyeth / N. C. Andrew James," May 1 - June 16, 1977;
References Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, Catalogue Raisonne of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), L.56, p. 717
Curatorial RemarksMary Landa, Curator of Andrew and Betsy Wyeth's collection, identified the house in the center background as the John Chad House, which stands north of Chadds Ford village along Mill Creek Road. The headgate in the foreground was on the race that fed Hoffman's Mill (now the Brandywine River Museum). The same location is depicted in NCW 866. The painting is probably the result of work Wyeth did in during the winter of 1911 / 1912 (NCW to Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth, March 13, 1912, Wyeth Family Archives).
N. C.Wyeth noted the building of the dam and raceway in a letter of June 30, 1908 (see BJW, The Wyeths, The Letters of N. C. Wyeth [Boston: Gambit, 1971], p. 257)
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Christie's, 1991