Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Said, in a tremulous voice, "Why don't you speak for yourself, John?"
Alternate Title(s):John Alden Bears the Offer of Miles Standish to Priscilla
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1920
Dimensions:
40 1/2 × 30 in. (102.9 × 76.2 cm)
Location unknown
Copyright, 1920, Houghton Mifflin Company
Accession number: SUPP2000.1128
Research Number: NCW: 1128
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH
ProvenanceStandish Lounge, Hotel Roosevelt , New York, NY, 1924; (?); (Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc., New York, NY, lot no. 53, April 21, 1978); Private collection and descended in family
Exhibition HistoryWilmington, DE, 1921, no. 73; Philadelphia, PA, 1921; Boston, MA, 1921; Boston, MA, 1922
References
"Wyeth's Paintings on Show at the City Club," Boston Post, Dec. 15, 1922; "The Wooing of Priscilla," The Mentor, vol. 14, no. 6 (July 1926), illustration p. 43 as "John Alden Bears the Offer of Miles Standish to Priscilla"; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 211; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.800, p. 399
Curatorial RemarksThe Brandywine River Museum of Art owns the copy of Houghton Mifflin's 1913 edition of The Courtship of Miles Standish, Elizabeth and other Poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (NCWS.95.211) which NCW read and marked as he chose his illustrative program. The copy is illustrated with engravings after an unidentified artist which seem to have furnished Wyeth with some inspiration.
"..."The Heart of the Puritan" compiled by Miss Hanscom of Smith College is a valuable collection of letters and journals which will add greatly to my mental background in working up the Miles Standish pictures." (NCW to "Babe," Jan. 14, 1920, WFA) At least three spinning wheels such as the one depicted were catalogued in Wyeth's studio collection (Brandywine River Museum).
Although Wyeth hoped to ship this painting to Boston in early February (NCW to Roger L. Scaife, Feb. 2, 1920, Houghton Mifflin Archives, Houghton Library, Harvard University), it probably didn't leave the studio until the end of the month. Wyeth wrote about the picture, " I've got a Priscilla who looks capable of the things Longfellow attributed to her" (NCW to Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth, "The Brooklyn Exhibition has brought me...," dated in another hand Feb. 26, 1920, Wyeth Family Archives). Priscilla's appearance did engender some comment. In his introduction to Wyeth's illustrated editon of The Courtship of Miles Standish, the poet's son (and painter) Ernest W. Longfellow wrote, "Whether Mr. Wyeth's conception of Priscilla as a piquant girl of French descent, with black hair and sparkling eyes, coincided with the demure Puritan maiden that was in my father's mind, I cannot say. On the historic grounds of her French-Huguenot ancestry, however, Mr. Wyeth is entitled to his conception, and no one can dispute the attractiveness of his Priscilla."
"..."The Heart of the Puritan" compiled by Miss Hanscom of Smith College is a valuable collection of letters and journals which will add greatly to my mental background in working up the Miles Standish pictures." (NCW to "Babe," Jan. 14, 1920, WFA) At least three spinning wheels such as the one depicted were catalogued in Wyeth's studio collection (Brandywine River Museum).
Although Wyeth hoped to ship this painting to Boston in early February (NCW to Roger L. Scaife, Feb. 2, 1920, Houghton Mifflin Archives, Houghton Library, Harvard University), it probably didn't leave the studio until the end of the month. Wyeth wrote about the picture, " I've got a Priscilla who looks capable of the things Longfellow attributed to her" (NCW to Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth, "The Brooklyn Exhibition has brought me...," dated in another hand Feb. 26, 1920, Wyeth Family Archives). Priscilla's appearance did engender some comment. In his introduction to Wyeth's illustrated editon of The Courtship of Miles Standish, the poet's son (and painter) Ernest W. Longfellow wrote, "Whether Mr. Wyeth's conception of Priscilla as a piquant girl of French descent, with black hair and sparkling eyes, coincided with the demure Puritan maiden that was in my father's mind, I cannot say. On the historic grounds of her French-Huguenot ancestry, however, Mr. Wyeth is entitled to his conception, and no one can dispute the attractiveness of his Priscilla."
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:b/w photography directly from artwork
Photo Credit:Courtesy of Sotheby's, New York, NY