Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Before me sat the Virgin Queen of Balkh; with a shock I realized that her face was wholly unveiled.
Alternate Title(s):Babylonian; Before Me Sat the Virgin Queen
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1923
Dimensions:
34 × 40 in. (86.4 × 101.6 cm)
From the collection of Houghton Mifflin Company
Accession number: SUPP2000.1303
Research Number: NCW: 1303
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined)
Exhibition HistoryNeedham, MA, 1968, no. 14, as "#3 Babylonian"
References
Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), ps. 264, 233; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.956, p. 454
Curatorial RemarksHoughton Mifflin's publication of "Silk," which had been serialized in McCall's Magazine, initially was to include all the illustrations from the magazine version. But in July 1923, Roger L. Scaife of Houghton Mifflin wrote to Wyeth that the decision had been made to use only one illustration on the book jacket/frontispiece. More illustrations, Scaife explained, would have made it necessary to increase the price of the book from $2.00 to $2.50, not practical from the publisher's view. The author didn't want to risk his reputation on bad sales, and besides, Scaife wrote, "We are a little bit afraid that the illustrations will attract those fiction readers who are eager for sensation." (Roger L. Scaife to NCW, 7/19/1923, bMS Am 1925 (1962), by permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University). Hougton Mifflin expected Wyeth to produce a map for the book, but an illness suffered by Carolyn Bockius Wyeth made it impossible for the artist to do so. (telegram, NCW to RLS, 8/1/1923, Houghton Mifflin Archives)
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Michael Gould