He was actually fretting with the bit.

Artist:

N.C. Wyeth

(American, 1882 - 1945)

He was actually fretting with the bit.

Alternate Title(s):possibly The Picador
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1907
Dimensions:
dimensions unavailable
Known by reproduction only
Accession number: SUPP2000.659
Research Number: NCW: 659
InscribedLower left: N. C. WYETH (underlined) / 07
ProvenanceCharles Scribner's Sons, New York, NY, 1907 -1916
Exhibition HistoryPossibly San Francisco, CA, 1915, no. 67, as "The Picador"; possibly San Francisco, CA, 1916, no. 6622, as "The Picador"
References Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 274; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.197, p. 168
Curatorial Remarks"I have just recieved a big story from Scribner's which offers me a wonderful chance. It includes the picturesque Bullfights of the Mexican Border" (NCW to Henriette Zirngiebel Wyeth, "My how the week's went..." and dated in another hand March 1, 1907). Later he wrote, "I worked hard on those things and I think they show a distinct advance, especially in a certain naturalness of conception" (NCW to HZW, "Dunn and I have just returned..." and dated in another hand April 5, 1907, both Wyeth Family Archives).
Scribner's archives indicate that the painting was loaned to Roy Sarles Durstine of Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn, a New York advertising firm in August of 1916 (Brandywine River Museum library, Scribner's archives, #24534). Other ptngs loaned to Durstine were returned to Scribner's and later sold, so the name might not figure in the provenance.
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency from printed image (Brandywine River Museum Library, tear sheet)
Photo Credit:Rick Echelmeyer, 12/2001