Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
Beginning of the American Union
Washington salutes the flag as he takes command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, 1775
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: ca. 1919
Dimensions:
35 1/2 × 25 in. (90.2 × 63.5 cm)
Private collection
Accession number: SUPP2000.592
Research Number: NCW: 592
InscribedUpper left: N. C. WYETH (underlined)
ProvenanceGinn and Company, Boston, MA, and by merger to corporate collection, Parsippany, NJ; [New York, NY, Sotheby's, Dec. 4, 2013, lot no. 14]
References
Thomas B. Lawler, Builders of America (Boston: Ginn and Co., 1927), illustration p. 195; Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 210; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.742, p. 379
Curatorial RemarksA charcoal drawing (NCW 1858) of this subject done in a horizontal orientation is probably later in date.
Wyeth's illustration reinforced the popular story that Washington took command of the troops under an elm tree on the Cambridge common, thereafter referred to and revered as the "Washington Elm." Wyeth would have known the tree, since its old, diseased remains stood until Oct 26, 1923, when it finally fell. https://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/6046720526. In December of that year, the mythology was discredited in an article in the Cambridge newspaper. In December 1931, another article also discrediting the myth around the tree, appeared in Harvard's Arnold Arboretum http://arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/pdf/articles/1931-5--the-cambridge-washington-elm.pdf.
Wyeth's illustration reinforced the popular story that Washington took command of the troops under an elm tree on the Cambridge common, thereafter referred to and revered as the "Washington Elm." Wyeth would have known the tree, since its old, diseased remains stood until Oct 26, 1923, when it finally fell. https://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/6046720526. In December of that year, the mythology was discredited in an article in the Cambridge newspaper. In December 1931, another article also discrediting the myth around the tree, appeared in Harvard's Arnold Arboretum http://arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/pdf/articles/1931-5--the-cambridge-washington-elm.pdf.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Photography directly from painting
Photo Credit:© Russ Lappa