Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
The Dance of the Whooping Cranes
Medium: Oil on hardboard (Renaissance Panel)
Date: 1939
Dimensions:
30 × 22 1/4 in. (76.2 × 56.5 cm)
Permanent collection of Cici and Hyatt Brown, on loan to the Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum of Art, Museum of Arts and Sciences, Dayton Beach, FL
Accession number: SUPP2000.1319
Research Number: NCW: 1319
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined); Renaissance Panel label affixed to reverse, no. 768, dated 3/24/39; on reverse of panel in white paint: Dance of the Whooping Cranes (all underlined)
ProvenanceThe artist; Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, 1939-1953; Julia Scribner Bigham, 1953-1960 and descended in family; (Christie's, Los Angeles, CA, June 14, 2006, lot no. 72)
Exhibition Historyprobably Clearwater, FL, 1941; Daytona Beach, FL, Museum of Arts and Sciences, "Reflections: Paintings of Florida 1865-1965, From the Collection of Cici and Hyatt Brown," Nov. 21 2009 - May 17, 2010;
References
Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 216; Elizabeth Silverthorne, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Sojourner at Cross Creek (Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press, 1988), ps. 171 and 352; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.1274, p. 574, 575; Gary R. Libby, Reflections, Paintings of Florida, 1865-1965, From the Collection of Cici and Hyatt Brown, Daytona Beach, FL: Museum of Arts and Sciences, 2009, ps. 128-129;
Curatorial RemarksThe artist must have sent proofs of the illustrations to Rawlings, who particularly liked this image. In a letter of early November, 1939, he promised her he would give her this painting if it weren't sold during the "Scribner exhibition," most likely a display of the originals in Scribner's Fifth Avenue store (NCW to Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Nov. 6, 1939, University of Florida Libraries, Dept. of Special Collections; also, a photograph of the painting at Rawlings's Cross Creek home). The second owner, Julia Scribner Bigham, was the editor of The Yearling.
Henry White Taylor was the first director of the Clearwater (Florida) Art Museum but prior to this post was in the Bucks County-Philadlephia region, a former student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He had met N. C. Wyeth by 1928 and was probably the organizer of the exhibition in Clearwater of Wyeth's Yearling paintings.
Robert Macbeth, owner of Macbeth Gallery in New York City, seems to have appreciated the beauty of this image. He wrote to Wyeth, "Many thanks for offering to get the print of "Dancing Cranes". I hope this is not going to make you a lot of trouble, but if I could pass along this beautiful thing, preferably with your signature on it, it would certainly be tremendously appreciated" (Robert Macbeth to NCW, April 11, 1940, WFA).
NCW 2523 is a composition drawing.
Henry White Taylor was the first director of the Clearwater (Florida) Art Museum but prior to this post was in the Bucks County-Philadlephia region, a former student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He had met N. C. Wyeth by 1928 and was probably the organizer of the exhibition in Clearwater of Wyeth's Yearling paintings.
Robert Macbeth, owner of Macbeth Gallery in New York City, seems to have appreciated the beauty of this image. He wrote to Wyeth, "Many thanks for offering to get the print of "Dancing Cranes". I hope this is not going to make you a lot of trouble, but if I could pass along this beautiful thing, preferably with your signature on it, it would certainly be tremendously appreciated" (Robert Macbeth to NCW, April 11, 1940, WFA).
NCW 2523 is a composition drawing.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Paul Foster Photography, 11/2005