Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Autumn Dawn
Alternate Title(s):Indian Fisherman, Woman and Child
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1915
Dimensions:
34 × 46 in. (86.4 × 116.8 cm)
Private collection, long term loan tot he Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, Washington
Accession number: SUPP2000.1077
Research Number: NCW: 1077
InscribedLower right: CONVERS / WYETH
ProvenanceDelaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE, 1963-2010, gift of the IBM Corporation; (Christie's, New York, NY, May 20, 2010, lot number 62; did not sell); Private collection to 2013;
Exhibition HistoryWilmington, DE, 1971, plate XXIV p. 24, as "Indian Fisherman, Woman and Child"; Dover, DE, Wesley College, "The Wyeth Family," April 29 - May 6, 1973; Greenville, SC, 1974, no. 68
References
N. C. Wyeth, "The Illustrator and His Development," American Art Student, vol. 1, nos. 3 & 4 (Nov.-Dec. 1916), illus. b/w p. 4; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 249, 257; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.583, p. 311
Curatorial RemarksAccording to a letter Wyeth wrote his mother in July, 1915, Constance Lindsay Skinner sent a number of poems directly to him. He considered her work "of profound dimension" and was responsible for calling this one to editorial attention at the Delineator (NCW to Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth, dated in another hand July 2, 1915, Wyeth Family Archives).
After finishing the "lay-in," he wrote, "I am at present in seventh heaven due to the outcome of this start!...I've got life, the masculine, the feminine, the Provider, the Madonna--courage, love, exaltation and devotion, with all outdoors as a background!" (NCW to HZW, "I take it that this letter...," and dated in another hand July 30, 1915, Wyeth Family Archives). The picture reproduced in the Delineator shows the female figure with both breasts covered; the reproduction in the American Art Student shows the figure with a bare breast. The American Art Student article also reproduces two preparatory drawings whose current locations are unknown.
The Delineator published this quote from the artist: "It is only big expression in literature that demands illumination. Lesser expression can stand illustration. I like the analogies and the vivid and musical phrases of the poem, but I love the embracing message infintely better....The cartoon for 'Autumn Dawn' is done, and it promises to be the biggest expression of life that I have so far done" (Delineator, vol.LXXXII, no. 11 (Nov. 1915), p. 3).
After finishing the "lay-in," he wrote, "I am at present in seventh heaven due to the outcome of this start!...I've got life, the masculine, the feminine, the Provider, the Madonna--courage, love, exaltation and devotion, with all outdoors as a background!" (NCW to HZW, "I take it that this letter...," and dated in another hand July 30, 1915, Wyeth Family Archives). The picture reproduced in the Delineator shows the female figure with both breasts covered; the reproduction in the American Art Student shows the figure with a bare breast. The American Art Student article also reproduces two preparatory drawings whose current locations are unknown.
The Delineator published this quote from the artist: "It is only big expression in literature that demands illumination. Lesser expression can stand illustration. I like the analogies and the vivid and musical phrases of the poem, but I love the embracing message infintely better....The cartoon for 'Autumn Dawn' is done, and it promises to be the biggest expression of life that I have so far done" (Delineator, vol.LXXXII, no. 11 (Nov. 1915), p. 3).
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Digital photography directly from painting
Photo Credit:Courtesy of the Delaware Art Museum