Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Give Me the Splendid Silent Sun
Alternate Title(s):The Apple Picker
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1940
Dimensions:
42 1/4 × 30 in. (107.3 × 76.2 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.212
Research Number: NCW: 212
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined)
ProvenanceDescended in the Wyeth family to 1983
References
N. C. Wyeth, Income tax notes for 1940 (unpublished, Brandywine River Museum library); Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 208; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.1290, p. 581
Curatorial RemarksIn May, 1940, the artist wrote to Lovell Thompson at Houghton Mifflin Co. that he had had to make a second attempt on this image, eventually successful on canvas rather than on panel like most of the other illustrations for the commission. He thought the painting effective and liked how it contrasted with other images in the series (NCW to Lovell Thompson, May 17. 1940, Houghton Mifflin Archives, Houghton Library, Harvard University). The Wyeth family holds a sketch (NCW 2206) that the artist marked his first for this composition, and the Brandywine River Museum holds another sketch from a slightly different perspective (NCW 2074 96.1.537).
The picture acompanied Walt Whitman's poem "Give Me the Spendid Silent Sun." The Brandywine River Museum holds an earlier, unillustrated edition of The Anthology of Children's Literature that the artist used to plan his pictures (NCWS.95.595).
The picture acompanied Walt Whitman's poem "Give Me the Spendid Silent Sun." The Brandywine River Museum holds an earlier, unillustrated edition of The Anthology of Children's Literature that the artist used to plan his pictures (NCWS.95.595).
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:b/w photography directly from artwork
Photo Credit:Brandywine River Museum curatorial files