Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
untitled (view from Eight Bells)
Alternate Title(s):The Wharf at Eight Bells
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: ca. 1937
Dimensions:
32 × 40 in. (81.3 × 101.6 cm)
Collection of the Farnsworth Art Museum
Given in Honor of Betsy and Andrew Wyeth
by Gay and Frank E. Fowler, 1998
Accession number: SUPP2000.2244
Research Number: NCW: 2244
ProvenanceThe artist; Mrs. N. C. Wyeth; Carolyn Wyeth; Mr. and Mrs. Frank E. Fowler, ca. 1974 - 1998
Exhibition HistoryRockland, ME, 2001; Kalamazoo, MI, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, "The Wyeths, America's Artists," Jan. 15-April 17, 2011;
References
Joyce Hill Stoner, "Discovering Hidden Wyeths," Winterthur Magazine (Spring 2000), ps. 27-28; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, Catalogue Raisonne of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), L.205, p. 768
Curatorial RemarksAndrew Wyeth and Betsy James Wyeth have identified the child at the end of the dock as Peter Wyeth Hurd (b. 1930), son of Peter Hurd and Henriette Wyeth Hurd. Peter spent extended summer visits in Port Clyde in 1936-1938 (letters, Wyeth Family Archives), but the dock depicted wasn't built until 1937 (Carolyn Bockius Wyeth to NCW, June 6, 1937 and NCW to CBW, June 9, 1937, WFA. Built by Dell Simmons), which provides an early date for the painting. During routine conservation in 1998, it was discovered that this picture is painted over an image of a house in Martinsville, Maine, that Andrew Wyeth began and abandoned in 1936 (see Stoner, Winterthur Magazine, and Andrew Wyeth catalogue raisonne).
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:1. transparency directly from painting; 2. X-radiograph of canvas, showing unfinished painting by Andrew Wyeth
Photo Credit:1. Courtesy of Farnsworth Art Museum; 2. Courtesy of Joyce Hill Stoner