Artist:
N.C. Wyeth
(American, 1882 - 1945)
It was, then, not a dream. This was the sign unto them.
Alternate Title(s):The Nativity
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1912
Dimensions:
47 × 38 in. (119.4 × 96.5 cm)
Private collection, ME
Accession number: SUPP2000.245
Research Number: NCW: 245
InscribedLower left: N. C. WYETH (underlined)
ProvenanceCharles Scribner's Sons, New York, NY; Joseph Hawley Chapin, New York, NY; (?); (Victor H. Neirinckx, New York, NY, 1960); Private collection, NJ, 1960-20??);
Exhibition HistoryGreenville, SC, 1974, no. 71, as "The Nativity"; Japan (3 venues), American Illustrators Gallery (organizer), "The Great American Illustrators," 1993, color illustration p. 34, no. 12 p. 125
References
Douglas Allen and Douglas Allen, Jr., N. C. Wyeth, The Collected Paintings, Illustrations and Murals (New York: Crown Publishers, 1972), p. 276, color illustration p. 75; Eds. of Reader's Digest, The Story of Jesus (Pleasantville, NY: Reader's Digest Association, Inc., 1993), color illustration p. 348; Christine B. Podmaniczky, N. C. Wyeth, A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings (London: Scala, 2008), I.457, p. 266
Curatorial RemarksJoseph H. Chapin of Scribner's gave the text of this story to the artist in mid-February, 1912. In a letter dated Feb. 20 to Carolyn Bockius Wyeth, he wrote, "...I shall make two drawings (200 per) for the Xmas number. Thos. Nelson Page--a delightful simple account of the birth of Christ and Joseph's and Mary's trip to Jerusalem previous to it" (Wyeth Family Archives).
Image Source for printed Catalogue Raisonne:Transparency directly from painting
Photo Credit:Jack Abraham, 10/2002