Telemachus in the Chariot of Nestor

Artist:

N.C. Wyeth

(American, 1882 - 1945)

Telemachus in the Chariot of Nestor

Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1929
Dimensions:
dimensions unavailable
known by reproduction only
Accession number: SUPP2000.1776
Research Number: NCW: 1776
InscribedLower right: N. C. WYETH (underlined) © (from reproduction)
ProvenanceThe artist to late 1930; Mrs. T. Whitney Blake, Katonah, NY, 1930-?
Exhibition HistoryBoston, MA, 1930, no. 10; Wilmington, DE, 1930(1), no. 23
References Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1972), p. 213; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.101094, p. 512, 513
Curatorial RemarksThe Wyeth Family Archives includes the copy of the book that N. C. Wyeth read and annotated in preparation for the commission, The Odyssey of Homer, translated by George Herbert Palmer, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1891. The book was found with notes about the commission in NCW's hand, a copy of a letter to Lovell Thompson of Houghton Mifflin dated August 3, 1929, Thompson's reply, dated August 7, 1929, and notes made by NCW for the Illustrator's preface.
In Dec. 1930, Wyeth wrote to Roger L. Scaife that he had sold the entire set of Odyssey paintings to "a Mrs. Blake of New York" who would keep them all together (NCW to RLS, Dec. 22, 1930, Houghton Library, Harvard University). Mrs. T. Whitney Blake's name occurs twice in the artist's address book (Brandywine River Museum, NCWS.95.1174).
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:image from printed source (Brandywine River Museum library)
Photo Credit:Rick Echelmeyer, 9/20/2006